Associação entre deficiências físicas e hospitalizações na população da cidade de São Paulo, Brasil

Access to general health care among people with disabilities in Latin America and the Caribbean: a systematic review of quantitative research

In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), there are 85 million people with disabilities (PwD). They often experience barriers accessing healthcare and die, on average, 10-20 years earlier than those without disabilities. This study aimed to systematically review the quantitative literature on access to general healthcare among PwD, compared to those without disabilities, in LAC. A systematic review and narrative synthesis was conducted. We searched in EMBASE, MEDLINE, LILACS, MedCarib, PsycINFO, SciELO, CINAHL, and Web of Science. Eligible articles were peer-reviewed, published between January 2000 and April 2023, and compared healthcare access (utilization, coverage, quality, affordability) between PwD and without disabilities in LAC. The search retrieved 16,538 records and 30 studies were included, most of which had a medium or high risk of bias (n = 23; 76%). Overall, the studies indicated that PwD use healthcare services more than those without disabilities. Some evidence indicated that women with disabilities were less likely to have received cancer screening. Limited evidence showed that health services affordability and quality were lower among PwD. In LAC, PwD appear to experience health inequities, although large gaps exist in the current evidence. Harmonization of disability and health access data collection is urgently needed to address this issue.

Saúde das pessoas com deficiência no Brasil

A desigualdade permeia diversos setores da realidade brasileira, de modo que atinge também a saúde. No que tange às pessoas com deficiência, a assimetria é ainda mais latente. Esta pesquisa procurou identificar, em produções científicas, as dificuldades enfrentadas por pacientes com deficiência no Brasil, no âmbito do acesso à saúde, o que, na prática, acentua a sua vulnerabilidade. Dessa forma, por meio da associação dos descritores “saúde”, “pessoa” e “deficiência”, realizou-se uma busca de publicações de 2009 a 2018 nas bases de dados Periódicos Capes, Lilacs e scielo Brasil. Da análise de 29 artigos, emergiram quatro categorias: a) preparação profissional para o atendimento de pacientes com deficiência; b) barreiras à acessibilidade à saúde; c) comunicação entre paciente com deficiência e médico/equipe; e d) dupla vulnerabilidade da mulher com deficiência. As respec- tivas categorias foram estudadas sob a perspectiva da bioética devido à interdisciplinaridade do tema e demonstraram as dificuldades enfrentadas pelas pessoas com deficiência. Como sugestões de melhorias, é possível destacar a modificação na atuação médica, a capacitação dos profissionais e o aprimoramento de políticas de saúde que visem à garantia do direito fundamental à saúde e à autodeterminação dos pacientes.

A Systematic Review of Access to General Healthcare Services for People with Disabilities in Low and Middle Income Countries

Background: A systematic review was undertaken to explore access to general healthcare services for people with disabilities in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Methods: Six electronic databases were searched in February 2017. Studies comparing access to general healthcare services by people with disabilities to those without disabilities from LMICs were included. Eligible measures of healthcare access included: utilisation, coverage, adherence, expenditure, and quality. Studies measuring disability using self-reported or clinical assessments were eligible. Title, abstract and full-text screening and data extraction was undertaken by the two authors. Results: Searches returned 13,048 studies, of which 50 studies were eligible. Studies were predominantly conducted in sub-Saharan Africa (30%), Latin America (24%), and East Asia/Pacific (12%). 74% of studies used cross-sectional designs and the remaining used case-control designs. There was evidence that utilisation of healthcare services was higher for people with disabilities, and healthcare expenditure was higher. There were less consistent differences between people with and without disabilities in other access measures. However, the wide variation in type and measurement of disability, and access outcomes, made comparisons across studies difficult. Conclusions: Developing common metrics for measuring disability and healthcare access will improve the availability of high quality, comparable data, so that healthcare access for people with disabilities can be monitored and improved.