Decreasing Health Disparities for People with Disabilities through Improved Communication Strategies and Awareness

Nancy Sharby, Katharine Martire and Maura D. Iversen
Additional contact information
Nancy Sharby: Department of Physical Therapy, Movement and Rehabilitation Sciences, Bouve College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Katharine Martire: Department of Physical Therapy, Movement and Rehabilitation Sciences, Bouve College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Maura D. Iversen: Department of Physical Therapy, Movement and Rehabilitation Sciences, Bouve College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA

IJERPH, 2015, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-16

Abstract: Factors influencing access to health care among people with disabilities (PWD) include: attitudes of health care providers and the public, physical barriers, miscommunication, income level, ethnic/minority status, insurance coverage, and lack of information tailored to PWD. Reducing health care disparities in a population with complex needs requires implementation at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels. This review article discusses common barriers to health care access from the patient and provider perspective, particularly focusing on communication barriers and how to address and ameliorate them. Articles utilized in this review were published from 2005 to present in MEDLINE and CINAHL and written in English that focused on people with disabilities. Topics searched for in the literature include: disparities and health outcomes, health care dissatisfaction, patient-provider communication and access issues. Ineffective communication has significant impacts for PWD. They frequently believe that providers are not interested in, or sensitive to their particular needs and are less likely to seek care or to follow up with recommendations. Various strategies for successful improvement of health outcomes for PWD were identified including changing the way health care professionals are educated regarding disabilities, improving access to health care services, and enhancing the capacity for patient centered care.

Keywords: health disparities; barriers; communication; strategies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/12/3/3301/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/12/3/3301/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:12:y:2015:i:3:p:3301-3316:d:47031

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().