{"title":"Barriers to oral health care for persons with disabilities: An overview of systematic reviews.","authors":"F Y I Asiri, M Tennant, E Kruger","doi":"10.1922/CDH_00173Asiri09","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Nearly one billion individuals globally live with disabilities, facing greater risk of dental issues. Systematic reviews have identified barriers to oral health care for persons with disabilities (PWDs), but a comprehensive synthesis to inform health-policy guidelines is lacking. This overview addresses this gap by summarizing the key barriers to oral health care access for PWDs.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>(1) summarize key findings on the barriers PWDs encounter in seeking dental and oral healthcare, (2) evaluate the influence of disabilities on accessibility to dental and oral health services, and (3) identify facilitators to improve access and inform future health policy.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Systematic review of systematic reviews of both cross-sectional and evaluative studies that identified barriers to oral health care access for PWDs. A comprehensive search of databases was conducted from inception to 24 February 2024, using specific keywords and Boolean operators. Data extraction and quality assessment were performed using AMSTAR 2 to ensure transparency and reliability.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Five systematic reviews were included. These reviews highlighted financial constraints, provider reluctance, access difficulties, systemic barriers, and patient-related factors as major obstacles. Methodological variations across reviews were noted, affecting the transparency and reliability of findings.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Barriers to oral health care access for PWDs include financial, provider-related, access-related, systemic, and patient-related factors. Addressing these barriers, particularly in developing countries, should be a priority for future research and interventions.</p>","PeriodicalId":10647,"journal":{"name":"Community dental health","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Community dental health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1922/CDH_00173Asiri09","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"DENTISTRY, ORAL SURGERY & MEDICINE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Nearly one billion individuals globally live with disabilities, facing greater risk of dental issues. Systematic reviews have identified barriers to oral health care for persons with disabilities (PWDs), but a comprehensive synthesis to inform health-policy guidelines is lacking. This overview addresses this gap by summarizing the key barriers to oral health care access for PWDs.
Objectives: (1) summarize key findings on the barriers PWDs encounter in seeking dental and oral healthcare, (2) evaluate the influence of disabilities on accessibility to dental and oral health services, and (3) identify facilitators to improve access and inform future health policy.
Methods: Systematic review of systematic reviews of both cross-sectional and evaluative studies that identified barriers to oral health care access for PWDs. A comprehensive search of databases was conducted from inception to 24 February 2024, using specific keywords and Boolean operators. Data extraction and quality assessment were performed using AMSTAR 2 to ensure transparency and reliability.
Results: Five systematic reviews were included. These reviews highlighted financial constraints, provider reluctance, access difficulties, systemic barriers, and patient-related factors as major obstacles. Methodological variations across reviews were noted, affecting the transparency and reliability of findings.
Conclusion: Barriers to oral health care access for PWDs include financial, provider-related, access-related, systemic, and patient-related factors. Addressing these barriers, particularly in developing countries, should be a priority for future research and interventions.
期刊介绍:
The journal is concerned with dental public health and related subjects. Dental public health is the science and the art of preventing oral disease, promoting oral health, and improving the quality of life through the organised efforts of society.
The discipline covers a wide range and includes such topics as:
-oral epidemiology-
oral health services research-
preventive dentistry - especially in relation to communities-
oral health education and promotion-
clinical research - with particular emphasis on the care of special groups-
behavioural sciences related to dentistry-
decision theory-
quality of life-
risk analysis-
ethics and oral health economics-
quality assessment.
The journal publishes scientific articles on the relevant fields, review articles, discussion papers, news items, and editorials. It is of interest to dentists working in dental public health and to other professionals concerned with disease prevention, health service planning, and health promotion throughout the world. In the case of epidemiology of oral diseases the Journal prioritises national studies unless local studies have major methodological innovations or information of particular interest.