RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: We aimed to determine the socio-economic factors associated with unmet healthcare needs of the population aged 20 and over in Serbia. METHODS: We used data from the 2013 National Health Survey (NHS) of the population of Serbia. We focused only on the data concerning the population aged 20 and over. The final sample thus included 13,765 participants. The logistic regression was used to examine the socio-economic factors associated with unmet health care needs. RESULTS: According to the data obtained in this study, 26.2% of the population aged 20 and over reported unmet health care needs during the previous 12 months. The multivariate analysis shows that significant indicators of unmet healthcare needs include: gender, age, marital status, level of education, financial and employment status. CONCLUSION: Females, the elderly and those with the lowest levels of education and household income, as well as those who are divorced and unemployed are at highest risk of unmet healthcare needs. Different policies and approaches should be taken into consideration when it comes to vulnerable population groups in order to reduce the currently existing gaps to a minimum and provide more equal opportunities for health care to all citizens.
RESUMEN
Multifocal serpiginoid choroiditis is an infectious variety of serpiginous choroiditis. The disease is characterized by infectious etiology and overlapping clinical features in an intermediary form of acute posterior multifocal placoid pigment epitheliopathy and serpiginous choroiditis. In a 33-year-old patient, bilateral multiple placoid partially confluent chorioretinal lesions were diagnosed after a febrile flu-like episode. On the right eye, there was a progressive decrease in visual acuity. Later, the lesions had a prolonged progressive devastating clinical course and widespread distribution of placoid lesions, and took the form of serpiginoid choroiditis. We conducted extensive laboratory work-up and ancillary investigation for granulomatous diseases such as tuberculosis and sarcoidosis, and the results were not consistent with these entities. Systemic medical work-up revealed a history of exposure to the human immunodeficiency virus, herpes simplex virus 1, varicella zoster virus and cytomegalovirus. The titer of Mycoplasma pneumoniae IgM antibodies was positive. After serological analysis positive for Mycoplasma pneumoniae, systemic antibiotic therapy and anti-inflammatory doses of corticosteroids were administered. Improvement of visual acuity after the introduction of causal antibiotic therapy in combination with anti-inflammatory therapy confirmed our suspicion that Mycoplasma pneumoniae was the etiologic cause of multifocal serpiginoid choroiditis.