Improving Health of Persons With Disabilities Living in Poverty: A Scoping Review

Abstract

The objective of this scoping review was to identify and synthesize the literature on interventions for improving the health outcomes of people with disabilities living in poverty. This scoping review was guided by the framework proposed by Arksey and O’Malley (2005), which included identifying the research question, selecting studies, charting and collating data, and summarizing and reporting the results. The electronic databases Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, PsychInfo, PubMed, ERIC, and Social Science Abstracts were searched to locate the relevant studies. Interventions for improving the health conditions or outcomes of economically disadvantaged and underserved people with disabilities were analyzed and synthesized. Seventeen studies published between 2000 and 2022 met the inclusion criteria. The selected studies were heterogeneous in terms of participant characteristics, interventions, and health outcomes. The results demonstrated that a wide array of intervention strategies could be utilized to improve various health-related outcomes among people with chronic illnesses and disabilities living in poverty. The review highlighted the effectiveness of various interventions; however, given the disparate nature of the research and interventions identified in this review, more work needs to be done in developing and testing interventions to improve health outcomes for people with disabilities living in poverty. The implications for practice and future research are discussed.