Systematic Review of Healthcare Access Barriers for People with Disabilities

M. Chimienti's systematic review, published on figshare in March 2026, analyzes evidence on barriers to healthcare for people with disabilities. The work synthesizes findings from 86 studies selected from an initial pool of 6,570 articles. It identifies recurring patterns of barriers including financial, transportation, communication, and attitudinal hurdles.

Use Cases

• Identify common barriers to healthcare access based on the review's categorization of physical, financial, and attitudinal hurdles.
• Analyze geographic and disability-type representation gaps in research based on the finding of concentration in high-income countries.
• Support policy development for systemic health system redesign based on the review's conclusions about moving beyond individualized accommodations.
• Guide future research agendas by addressing identified evidence gaps, such as the underrepresentation of stakeholder perspectives.

Strengths

• The review is based on a rigorous double-blind screening process applied to 6,570 articles.
• It provides a detailed breakdown of the 86 included studies by disability type (28 mental/cognitive/developmental, 33 physical, 25 multiple).
• The analysis identifies a specific gap: only 10% of studies focused on interventions rather than barriers.

Limitations

• The dataset is a single 755.9 KB document, representing a limited scope of aggregated findings rather than raw research data.
• Column-level documentation is absent; the structure and specific data points within the document must be inferred after download.
• The review notes a geographic concentration of evidence from high-income countries, which may limit generalizability.

Provenance

Source

M. Chimienti via figshare.

Collection Method

Systematic review using PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science with strict inclusion/exclusion criteria and double-blind screening.

Time Range

The review covers literature up to its publication date, but the specific temporal coverage of included studies is not stated.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-17 13:07:11.

Geography

Global evidence, though the review notes a concentration of studies from high-income countries.