Background and Rationale
The problem of access to and use of healthcare services that varies among its consumers is an intrinsic and constant issue in every country’s healthcare system. Expectedly, the very young and the very old are heavy users in any healthcare setting. For example, Older Adults are heavy consumers of healthcare (22 percent) and light consumers of public health care (5 percent). From out-of-pocket costs, the Older Adults were heavy users of care from medical centers, hospitals, nonhospital health institutions and rural health units (Racelis et al. 2006). However, there is another issue, the underutilization of health services in public hospitals in developing countries (Zwi, 2001). For instance, in the Philippines, there …show more content…
Andersen (1995) defined utilization as the actual use of health services by medical individuals or healthcare facilities. In contrast, access is the likelihood for entry into the healthcare system.
In the Philippines, formal support for the population is weak because of conflicting politics from the local and national government. And this leads to a question if Older Adults have access to healthcare services and if they can use them to address their previous and post-disaster health conditions.
However, several factors may directly or indirectly affect access to and use of health services, which will eventually affect individual’s health status. For example, the sudden impact of Typhoon Haiyan, or locally known Typhoon Yolanda, had a substantial burden on the healthcare needs of 129,321 Older Adults in Leyte. These vulnerable populations have chronic health needs that were aggravated, created and occasionally neglected during the response efforts. Beside physical health, mental health is also affected by a disaster. Jia (2010) reported Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to be the major impact following a natural disaster. The actual and potential health risks following a disaster do not all occur at the same time. Instead, they arise at different times and vary in importance within a disaster-affected …show more content…
Majority of studies on healthcare use in the Philippines were on the maternal and child healthcare uses. Though there were some surveys conducted by the National Statistics Office that involved Older Adults, these surveys were very limited to census and disabilities giving us no clue about the health status, access, use, and factors affecting health services for Older Adults. Thus, this study will take advantage of the situation, after Super Typhoon Yolanda, in Leyte to explore healthcare service use and its accessibility encompassing the psychological aspect among Older Adults in low-income in Leyte. Furthermore, this study is the first to characterize the barriers to obtaining healthcare that persist for Older Adults within a system where almost all these individuals have no Philhealth Insurance and are situated in rural communities far from healthcare facilities. Rural residents are disproportionately disadvantaged at obtaining health insurance and procuring medical services. Also, residents of rural areas have lower incomes, are more likely to report higher unmet medical needs, and less likely to access preventive healthcare services than urban
The problem of access to and use of healthcare services that varies among its consumers is an intrinsic and constant issue in every country’s healthcare system. Expectedly, the very young and the very old are heavy users in any healthcare setting. For example, Older Adults are heavy consumers of healthcare (22 percent) and light consumers of public health care (5 percent). From out-of-pocket costs, the Older Adults were heavy users of care from medical centers, hospitals, nonhospital health institutions and rural health units (Racelis et al. 2006). However, there is another issue, the underutilization of health services in public hospitals in developing countries (Zwi, 2001). For instance, in the Philippines, there …show more content…
Andersen (1995) defined utilization as the actual use of health services by medical individuals or healthcare facilities. In contrast, access is the likelihood for entry into the healthcare system.
In the Philippines, formal support for the population is weak because of conflicting politics from the local and national government. And this leads to a question if Older Adults have access to healthcare services and if they can use them to address their previous and post-disaster health conditions.
However, several factors may directly or indirectly affect access to and use of health services, which will eventually affect individual’s health status. For example, the sudden impact of Typhoon Haiyan, or locally known Typhoon Yolanda, had a substantial burden on the healthcare needs of 129,321 Older Adults in Leyte. These vulnerable populations have chronic health needs that were aggravated, created and occasionally neglected during the response efforts. Beside physical health, mental health is also affected by a disaster. Jia (2010) reported Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to be the major impact following a natural disaster. The actual and potential health risks following a disaster do not all occur at the same time. Instead, they arise at different times and vary in importance within a disaster-affected …show more content…
Majority of studies on healthcare use in the Philippines were on the maternal and child healthcare uses. Though there were some surveys conducted by the National Statistics Office that involved Older Adults, these surveys were very limited to census and disabilities giving us no clue about the health status, access, use, and factors affecting health services for Older Adults. Thus, this study will take advantage of the situation, after Super Typhoon Yolanda, in Leyte to explore healthcare service use and its accessibility encompassing the psychological aspect among Older Adults in low-income in Leyte. Furthermore, this study is the first to characterize the barriers to obtaining healthcare that persist for Older Adults within a system where almost all these individuals have no Philhealth Insurance and are situated in rural communities far from healthcare facilities. Rural residents are disproportionately disadvantaged at obtaining health insurance and procuring medical services. Also, residents of rural areas have lower incomes, are more likely to report higher unmet medical needs, and less likely to access preventive healthcare services than urban