Unmet health need and perceived barriers to health care among adolescents living in a rural area

Abstract

This study investigated the perceived health care needs, unmet health need, and barriers to health care in 224 rural-dwelling adolescents. A cross-sectional, descriptive design was used to survey adolescents attending a public high school in a low-resource, rural Indiana community. One in five adolescents reported an unmet health need. The most common barriers to health care were related to access, apathy, anxiety, and parenting issues. Implications include confidentiality protocols in family healthcare practices, school-based health centers, and intervention research targeting adolescents’ communication skills and healthcare consumer skills.