title: Primary health care use and health care accessibility among adolescents in the United Arab Emirates.
abstract: This study examined primary health care use and accessibility among adolescents living in the United Arab Emirates. In a cross-sectional study, we collected health care use, sociodemographic and residential data for a sample of 6363 adolescents. Logistic regression modelling was used to examine predictors of health care use. The most-consulted health professionals were dentists or orthodontists, family doctors and eye specialists. Local adolescents were more likely to attend public clinics/hospitals than private facilities, while the opposite was true for expatriates. In the previous 12 months 22.6% of the participants had not obtained the health care they needed and 19.5% had not had a routine health check-up. Common reasons for not obtaining care were busy schedules, dislike/fear of doctors and long waiting times. Predictors of not obtaining needed care included nationality and income, while those for having a routine check-up were mother's education and car ownership. Improvements to the health care sector may increase health care accessibility among adolescents.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, Canada Caroline. Barakat-Haddad@uoit.ca.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barakat-Haddad
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Siddiqua
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014479:United Arab Emirates; D055815:Young Adult