Healthcare avoidance – A phenomenon in (dental) medical care

A considerable proportion of the population avoids healthcare [8, 14, 16], even when people may be aware of the need for treatment. This well-known problem applies to dentistry as well, as about 7–10 % of the total German population avoids visiting the dentist. The research field of "Healthcare Avoidance" (HCA) deals with the problem of patient avoidance or delay of examinations or treatments. HCA is an interdisciplinary field of research involving medicine, social science and psychology, in which the causes of avoidance behavior, the early identification of risk patients and possible concepts for improving the current situation are examined. The following text presents an overview of literature relating to this phenomenon.