The Unmet Healthcare Needs in 6-12 Years Old Children at the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Objective: To determine the unmet healthcare needs based on parental notification in children between the ages of 6-12 during the pandemic process and the reasons for not meeting the healthcare services.
Material and Methods: The type of the research is descriptive. Parents who live in different regions of Turkey and have children between the ages of 6-12 formed the research population. In the study, 327 individuals were reached and the power of the research was calculated as 80.8% at 0.2 effectiveness and at 95% confidence level. Participants were reached using the snowball sampling method, data were collected via a link sent to their smart mobile phones through their social media accounts. Before starting the research, permission from the Ministry of Health and ethics committee permission from Kırşehir Ahi Evran University was obtained.
Results: In 92.4% of the families in the study, at least one child lives whose need for at least one health service is not met. It was determined that individuals had inability to prescribe a necessary drug (92.4%), had unmet healthcare needs in dentistry (31.2%), urgent situations (26.3%), eye-related problems (16.2%), mental health (12.8%), preventive healthcare (11.9%) and ear-related problems (6.1%). The most common reason for unmet healthcare needs in the study was fear of COVID-19 transmission (89.9%), which is below the acceptability (n=374).
Conclusion and recommendations: Unmet need for healthcare is quite common in children aged 6-12, and the most common reason for this is the acceptability of healthcare services. It is recommended that public health nurses should conduct studies for unmet healthcare needs under pandemic conditions.

Keywords

• Pandemics
• Child health
• Health services
• Public health nursing
• Accessibility of health services

COVID-19 Pandemisinde 6-12 Yaş Arası Çocuklarda Karşılanmamış Sağlık Hizmeti Gereksinimleri

Abstract

Amaç: Bu araştırmanın amacı, pandemi sürecinde 6-12 yaş arası çocuklarda ebeveyn bildirimine dayalı karşılanmamış sağlık hizmeti gereksinimlerini ve sağlık hizmetlerinin karşılanmama nedenlerini belirlemektir.
Gereç ve Yöntem: Araştırma tanımlayıcı tiptedir. Araştırmanın evrenini, Türkiye’nin farklı bölgelerinde yaşayan ve 6-12 yaş arası çocuğu olan ebeveynler oluşturmuştur. Araştırma kapsamında 327 bireye ulaşılmış olup araştırmanın gücü, bilgisayar ortamında 0.2 etki büyüklüğü ve %95 güven düzeyinde %80.8 olarak hesaplanmıştır. Katılımcılara kartopu örnekleme yöntemiyle ulaşılmış, veriler sosyal medya hesapları üzerinden akıllı cep telefonlarına gönderilen link yoluyla toplanmıştır. Araştırmaya başlamadan önce Sağlık Bakanlığı’ndan kurul izni, Kırşehir Ahi Evran Üniversitesi’nden etik kurul izni alınmıştır.
Bulgular: Araştırmada ailelerin %92.4’ünde, en az bir sağlık hizmeti gereksinimi karşılanmamış olan en az bir çocuk yaşamaktadır. Araştırmada bireylerin sırasıyla; gerekli olan bir ilacı reçete ettirememe (%92.4), diş (%31.2), acil durumlar (%26.3), göz (%16.2), ruh sağlığı desteği (%12.8), koruyucu sağlık gereksinimi (%11.9) ve kulak (%6.1) ile ilgili karşılanmamış sağlık hizmeti gereksinimi olduğu belirlenmiştir. Araştırmada karşılanmamış sağlık hizmeti gereksiniminin en sık karşılaşılan nedeni; kabul edilebilirlik (n=374) ve altında yer alan COVID-19 bulaşma korkusudur (%89.9).
Sonuç ve Öneriler: Araştırmanın sonuçlarına göre; 6-12 yaş arası çocuklarda karşılanmamış sağlık hizmeti gereksinimi oldukça yaygın olup bunun en sık görülen nedeninin sağlık hizmetinin kabul edilebilirliği ile ilgili olduğu belirlenmiştir. Bu sonuçlar doğrultusunda; halk sağlığı hemşirelerinin pandemi koşullarında karşılanmamış sağlık hizmeti gereksinimlerine yönelik çalışmalar yapması önerilir.

Keywords

• Pandemi
• Çocuk sağlığı
• Halk sağlığı hemşireliği
• Sağlık hizmetleri
• Sağlık hizmetlerinin ulaşılabilirliği

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