Quantifying unmet need for health and social care among older persons and understanding its policy drivers in the Western Pacific Region
Implementations
Implementing partners
The Australian National University, Canberra (Australia); The Fred Hollows Foundation (Australia)
Other participating institutions: WHO Western Pacific Regional Office; WHO Country Offices of Cambodia and Viet Nam
Total budget
Background
The COVID-19 pandemic raised awareness of unmet health care needs, leading the 2023 World Health Assembly to consider including unmet health care needs as a universal health coverage indicator. However, unmet social care needs among older adults, which affect independence and health outcomes, are largely overlooked.
In WHO’s Western Pacific Region, at least 15 countries have data on unmet health and social care needs, allowing exploration to better understand the impact of unmet care needs policies, especially on older persons. This project will examine data-policy links in Cambodia, China, and Viet Nam.
Goals
To estimate unmet health and social care needs from 2005 to 2023 and identify health and social care policies from 2000 to 2020 that may impact on unmet needs in Cambodia, China and Viet Nam.
Methods
- Use quantitative methods to describe levels and changes in unmet need (2005 – 2023) in each country using WHO and non-WHO surveys.
- Undertake a desk review focusing on major policy, health system and socioeconomic changes in the past 10-20 years in the three countries.
- Map these major policies with unmet health and social care needs over time to examine policy levers for addressing needs or to identify policies/programmes that may contribute to unmet need.
- Conduct key informant interviews with experts, WHO technical units in the selected countries, and the WHO Regional Office to leverage local knowledge about policies and context.
Expected Outcomes
- Estimates of unmet health and social care need among older persons for Cambodia, China, Viet Nam.
- Identification of health and social policies that may impact unmet care needs of older persons in each country for possible further evaluation research.
- Contribution to World Health Assembly Resolution 76.4 to review the importance and feasibility of using unmet health care need as an additional indicator for monitoring universal health coverage.
- Implications for relevant policies in other countries within and beyond the Western Pacific Region.