NEED Assessment Framework 2025: applicability to paediatric population

Abstract Background In 2021 in Europe, approximately 4.4% of children experienced disabling limitations due to health problems. Unmet patient and societal needs are particularly concerning in children, as inadequate care can compromise a child's health and overall development in the short and long term. The Needs Examination, Evaluation, and Dissemination (NEED) framework defines criteria and indicators for assessing unmet health-related needs to support a more needs-driven innovation and policy in healthcare. This study aims to identify necessary adaptations to the NEED framework to make it applicable to paediatric populations. Methods A rapid literature review was conducted using terms related to needs and paediatrics. Ovid Medline®, Embase® and Cochrane® were searched for studies published from 2014 to 2025. Articles were included if they measured children's health-related needs (0-18 years) in Western countries. A deductive approach to assess the applicability of the NEED framework to paediatric populations was combined with an inductive approach to identify potential new needs-criteria and indicators. Results A total of 2393 articles were screened. Results showed that needs-criteria and indicators vary by the child's age and developmental stage. Consequently, specific needs assessment criteria and indicators to be considered in the NEED framework are defined for very young children (0-6 years), children (6-12 years), and adolescents (12-18 years). Additionally, the role of parents in evaluating children's needs should be more thoroughly considered. Conclusions To increase the relevance of the NEED framework to assess unmet health-related needs in paediatric populations, adaptations are required in terms of criteria considered and indicators used to measure these criteria. Nevertheless, the basic structure of the NEED framework can be maintained and thus also allow for more needs-driven innovation and policy in healthcare for children. Key messages • The first framework in paediatrics containing criteria and indicators for assessing children’s health-related and healtcare-related unmet needs. • The paediatric NEED framework can be used from 0-18 years old, regardless of the child’s conditions.