abstract: 'Background During the COVID-19 pandemic the utilization of health

  services has changed. People were living in a very different social,

  economic and epidemiological context. Unmet health care is expected to

  happen. The purposes of this work are i) to compare the differences

  between unmet care across countries, ii) to find the main factors which

  are associated with unmet health care, which includes giving up and

  postponing medical care, as well as denial of medical care provision by

  the health services, and iii) to determine if health systems''

  characteristics and government decisions on lockdown were related to

  unmet care. Methods We have used the most recent dataset collected by

  the SHARE-COVID Survey during the summer of 2020. These data cover all

  EU countries and are applied to people over 50. We have estimated a set

  of logistic regressions to explain unmet health care. Results The

  results indicate that women, people who are slightly younger, with

  higher education and income, who find it hard to make ends meet each

  month, and people with poorer health were more likely to experience

  unmet health care. We also found that in health systems with high

  out-of-pocket payments people are more likely to give up health care

  while in countries with previous high levels of unmet health needs this

  likelihood was the opposite; people in countries with a high number of

  beds per capita and with a Beveridge-type health system were reporting

  less postponement of health care. Conclusion Some policy measures may be

  suggested such as social and economic measures to mitigate loss of

  income, expansion of the points and forms of access to health care to

  improve utilisation.'
affiliation: 'Tavares, AI (Corresponding Author), Lisbon Sch Econ \& Management, ISEG,
  Lisbon, Portugal.

  Tavares, AI (Corresponding Author), Univ Coimbra, Ctr Studies \& Res Hlth, CEISUC,
  Coimbra, Portugal.

  Tavares, Aida Isabel, Lisbon Sch Econ \& Management, ISEG, Lisbon, Portugal.

  Tavares, Aida Isabel, Univ Coimbra, Ctr Studies \& Res Hlth, CEISUC, Coimbra, Portugal.'
article-number: '182'
author: Tavares, Aida Isabel
author-email: atavares@iseg.ulisboa.pt
author_list:
- family: Tavares
  given: Aida Isabel
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1186/s12913-022-07563-9
eissn: 1472-6963
files: []
journal: BMC HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
keywords: Unmet health care; COVID-19 pandemic; Europe; SHARE
keywords-plus: INCOME-RELATED INEQUALITIES; MEDICAL-CARE; ACCESS; SERVICES
language: English
month: FEB 12
number: '1'
number-of-cited-references: '50'
orcid-numbers: Tavares, AIsabel/0000-0003-3487-1202
papis_id: 1e212d2531f569050d3d76d471f480cc
ref: Tavares2022oldereuropeans
researcherid-numbers: Tavares, AIsabel/HPG-6135-2023
times-cited: '9'
title: Older Europeans' experience of unmet health care during the COVID-19 pandemic
  (first wave)
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000754206300002
usage-count-last-180-days: '1'
usage-count-since-2013: '5'
volume: '22'
web-of-science-categories: Health Care Sciences \& Services
year: '2022'