Access to health care for men and women with disabilities in the UK: a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate differences in access to health care between people with and without disabilities in the UK. The hypotheses were that: a) people with disabilities would be more likely to have unmet health care needs; and b) there would be gender differences, with women more likely to report unmet needs. Setting and Participants: We performed secondary analysis, using logistic regressions, of de-identified cross-sectional data from the European Health Interview Survey, Wave 2. The sample included 12,840 community-dwelling people over the age of 16 from across the UK, 5,236 of whom had a disability. The survey method involved face-to-face and telephone interviews. Outcome measures: Unmet need for health care due to long waiting lists, or distance or transportation problems; not being able to afford medical examination, treatment, mental health care, or prescribed medicines. All measures were self-reported. Results: Adjusting for age, sex, and other factors, people with a severe disability had higher odds of facing unmet needs. The largest gap was in ‘unmet need for mental health care due to cost’, where people with a severe disability were 4.5 times (CI 95%: 2.2-9.2) more likely to face a problem, as well as in ‘unmet need due to cost of prescribed medicine’, where people with a mild disability had 3.6 (CI 95%: 2.2-5.9) higher odds of facing a difficulty. Women with a disability were 7.2 times (CI 95%: 2.7-19.4) more likely to have unmet needs due to cost of care or medication, compared to men with no disability. Conclusions: People with disabilities reported worse access to health care, with transportation, cost, and long waiting lists being the main barriers. These findings are worrying as they illustrate that a section of the population, who may have higher health care needs, faces increased barriers in accessing services