Healthcare Avoidance before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic among Australian Youth: A Longitudinal Study

被引：11

作者：

Islam, Md Irteja ^{[1
,2
]}

Freeman, Joseph ^{[1
]}

Chadwick, Verity ^{[3
]}

Martiniuk, Alexandra ^{[1
,4
,5
]}

机构：

[1] Univ Sydney, Fac Med & Hlth, Sydney Sch Publ Hlth, Edward Ford Bldg,A27 Fisher Rd, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia

[2] Univ Southern Queensland, Ctr Hlth Res & Sch Sci, West St, Toowoomba, Qld 4350, Australia

[3] Royal North Shore Hosp, Reserve Rd, Sydney, NSW 2065, Australia

[4] George Inst Global Hlth, Off Chief Scientist, Level 5-1 King St, Sydney, NSW 2042, Australia

[5] Univ Toronto, Dalla Lana Sch Publ Hlth, 155 Coll St Room 500, Toronto, ON M5T 3M7, Canada

来源：

HEALTHCARE | 2022年 / 10卷 / 07期

关键词：

COVID-19; pandemic; coronavirus; service access; healthcare avoidance; perceived need; adolescents; youth; young adult; Australia; PERCEIVED NEED; UNITED-STATES; HELP-SEEKING; MEDICAL-CARE; ACCESS; ADULTS;

D O I：

10.3390/healthcare10071261

中图分类号：

R19 [保健组织与事业（卫生事业管理）];

学科分类号：

摘要：

Background: Access to healthcare for young people is essential to ensure they can build a foundation for a healthy life. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people avoided seeking healthcare, adversely affecting population health. We investigated the factors associated with the avoidance of healthcare for Australian young people when they reported that they needed healthcare. We were able to compare healthcare avoidance during the COVID-19 pandemic with healthcare avoidance prior to COVID-19. Methods: We used two recent data collection waves from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC)-Wave 9C1 during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and Wave 8 data which were collected in 2018. The primary outcome of this study revealed the avoidance of healthcare among those who perceived the need for care. Bivariate analyses and multiple logistic regression models were employed to identify the factors associated with the avoidance of healthcare during the COVID-19 and pre-COVID-19 periods. Results: In the sample of 1110 young people, 39.6% avoided healthcare during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic even though they perceived that they had a health problem that required healthcare. This healthcare avoidance was similar to the healthcare avoidance in the pre-COVID-19 pandemic period (41.4%). The factors most strongly associated with healthcare avoidance during the COVID-19 pandemic were female gender, an ongoing medical condition, and moderately high psychological distress. In comparison, prior to the pandemic, the factor associated with healthcare avoidance was only psychological distress. The most common reason for not seeking healthcare was thinking that the problem would spontaneously resolve itself (55.9% during COVID-19 vs. 35.7% pre-COVID-19 pandemic). Conclusions: A large proportion of youths avoided healthcare when they felt they needed to seek care, both during and before the COVID-19 pandemic.

引用

页数：15

共 65 条

[1] Developing a workbook to support the contextualisation of global health systems guidance: a case study identifying steps and critical factors for success in this process at WHO [J].