우울증 환자의 코로나19 전후 미충족 의료 영향 요인

Abstract

Factors affecting unmet medical care before and after COVID-19 in depressed patients Lee, Ha-Na Advisor : Prof. Choi, Seong-Woo M.D., Ph.D Department of Public Health, Graduate School of Health Science, Chosun University Objective: Research has shown that the number of patients with depression is steadily increasing worldwide and that access to medical care is becoming more difficult due to COVID-19. Accordingly, this study seeks to identify changes and influencing factors in the use of unmet medical needs among depressed patients in Korea before and after COVID-19. Methods: This study used data from the 2019 and 2020 National Health and Nutrition Survey. Depressed patients aged 19 or older were selected from 8,110 in 2019 and 7,359 in 2020, and 160 in 2019 and 188 in 2020 were analyzed for this study. The association between general, health-related, and mental health-related characteristics and unmet medical needs was examined using the chi-square test and logistic regression analysis. Results: Among patients with depression, unmet medical care before COVID-19 was 13.9%, and unmet medical needs after COVID-19 was 21.8%. We investigated various variables that could affect unmet medical needs before and after COVID-19, but the factor affecting unmet medical needs in depressed patients was ‘whether or not they were hospitalized in the past year.’ Conclusion: It was confirmed that the unmet medical needs of depressed patients is higher than that of the general public and has increased even further since COVID-19. The results of this study can serve as evidence to reduce unmet medical needs in depressed patients in preparation for future infectious diseases. Key words: Depression, Unmet medical needs, COVID-19, Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey