Background: Multiple factors influence the health of working children, including cultural, behavioral, and environmental determinants. Identifying and understanding these factors is essential for developing effective interventions. This study aimed to identify and critically analyze the factors-termed "health terminators"-that undermine the physical and mental health of working children, considering cultural, behavioral, and environmental influences.
Methods: This study is the second part of a larger ethnographic research conducted in Tehran, employing a qualitative critical ethnographic design over four years. Data collection included prolonged participant observation in workplaces, homes, and schools, semi-structured interviews with children aged 10-18 and key informants, informal conversations, and analysis of documents and children's drawings. Data were coded and analyzed following Carspecken's framework, with triangulation, member checking, and peer debriefing used to ensure trustworthiness.
Results: Analysis generated 3,057 low-level codes, with approximately one thousand assigned to the main theme "health terminators," comprising five intermediate categories: cultural beliefs, self-harming behaviors, living in unhealthy environments, forgotten children, and social abandonment and vulnerability. Key issues identified included superstition, risky behaviors, neglect of preventive health measures, unsafe housing, educational and emotional neglect, and restricted access to health services.
Conclusions: Working children face multifaceted health risks driven by cultural, behavioral, and structural factors. Comprehensive, equity-oriented policies addressing physical needs, cultural beliefs, health behaviors, and environmental conditions are essential. Interventions such as culturally sensitive health education, improved living conditions, health insurance coverage, and social support can reduce vulnerability and promote equitable health outcomes, contributing to health justice for marginalized children.
Background: Over the past two decades, Chile has undertaken numerous initiatives to reform its healthcare system. However, health equity is influenced by factors beyond the healthcare system. Particularly in hearing health, the access to hearing loss treatment has been reported as hampered at many levels. This scoping review aimed to map the available evidence on hearing health to identify local determinants and barriers that may contribute to disparities in access to treatment for hearing loss in Chile.
Methods: The Joanna Briggs Institute guidance for scoping reviews was followed. The PCC mnemonic (Population, Concept, and Context) was used to guide the development of the search strategy. Searches were conducted in MEDLINE via PubMed, Cochrane and Science Direct databases, limited to publications from 2000 to June 2025, with no language nor type of publication restrictions, and was supplemented by manual search. Two independent reviewers screened all retrieved references, assessed the eligibility, and charted data of the eligible publications. Disagreements were solved through discussion with a third reviewer. Basic content analysis was used to identify the local determinants and barriers in access to hearing loss treatment, which were narratively described and presented along visual summary tools.
Results: Of the 940 unique records identified for screening, the full text of 135 publications were assessed and 50 were included in the review. The principal determinants of hearing care were identified as age, and type and degree of hearing loss. Individuals with severe to profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss have access to appropriate treatment at any stage of their lives through publicly funded programs. However, youth and adults with mixed or conductive hearing loss do not have a clear pathway to rehabilitation. Barriers to accessing hearing care services in Chile included lower education and income levels, unemployment, limited awareness of treatment options, insufficient family or social support, and residing in remote areas.
Conclusion: Despite public health advancements in providing hearing loss treatment, gaps persist in certain populations. Reducing these disparities requires improving access to services, expanding hearing screening, and providing hearing technologies across all ages and for all types and degrees of hearing loss.

