In the last issue of CMAJ, Pulse reported that 1.5 million Canadians had unmet health care needs in 1998/99 (CMAJ 2002;166[8]:1078). Now, preliminary data from the most recent Statistics Canada Canadian Community Health Survey indicate that the proportion of Canadians aged 12 or older who experienced unmet health care needs in 2000/01 has almost doubled since 1998/99, rising to 12.5% from 6.3%.
![Figure](https://www.cmaj.ca/content/cmaj/166/9/1198.2/F1.medium.gif)
Figure.
In 2000/01, females were more likely to report unmet needs than males (14% compared with 10.9%). Older Canadians (65 or older) were less likely to report them (8.1%) than those aged 12 to 34 and 35 to 64 (13.2%).
Treatment of physical problems was the most common type of unmet need in 2000/01 (71%), followed by care required due to an injury (10.2%) and treatment of emotional or mental problems (8.9%). These proportions are very similar to those from 1998/99.
Among those reporting unmet needs in 2000/01, 30.4% cited long waiting times as the reason, up from 22.9% in 1998/99. The proportion of needs unmet because the service is not available was unchanged (14.7% in 1998/99 and 14.3% in 2000/01), while reports of unmet needs due to certain personal circumstances (didn't bother, too busy, cost) decreased between 1998/99 and 2000/01. — Shelley Martin, Senior Analyst, Research, Policy and Planning Directorate, CMA