Dougal Hargreaves|Marc N. Elliott|Russell Viner|Tracy K. Richmond|Mark A. Schuster
Unmet Health Care Need in US Adolescents and Adult Health Outcomes
University College London|RAND Corporation|University College London|Boston Children's Hospital|Harvard University
adolescence formative period health care services unique opportunity influence later health outcomes unmet health care need adolescence known associated poor contemporaneous health outcomes unknown whether predicts poor adult health outcomeswe used nationally representative data 14 800 subjects participated wave mean age 159 years 19941995 wave iv mean age 296 years 2008 national longitudinal study adolescent adult health logistic regression models used estimate association unmet health care need adolescence 5 selfreported measures adult health fairpoor general health functional impairment time workschool depressive symptoms suicidal ideation models adjusted baseline health insurance category age gender raceethnicity household income parental educationunmet health care need reported 192 adolescents predicted worse adult health fairpoor general health adjusted odds ratio aor 127 95 confidence interval ci 100160 functional impairment aor 152 95 ci 123187 depressive symptoms aor 136 95 ci 113164 suicidal ideation aor 130 95 ci 103168 significant association unmet health care need time workschool aor 113 95 ci 093136 cost barriers accounted 148 unmet health care need reason unmet need significantly related likelihood poor adult health outcomesreported unmet health care need adolescence common independent predictor poor adult health strategies reduce unmet adolescent need address health engagement care quality well cost barriers accessing services