Clinical preventive service use disparities among subgroups of people with disabilities: A scoping review

Recommended use of clinical preventive services (CPS) reduces morbidity and mortality from preventable conditions. Disparities in CPS utilization between individuals with and without disabilities have been shown, but a greater understanding of the disability subpopulations with lowest utilization is needed to better inform research, policy, and practice.

The objective was to conduct a scoping review of the literature to identify relevant studies on disparities in receipt of CPS among subgroups of individuals with disabilities.

In July 2010, electronic and manual literature searches were conducted for years 2000-2009. Review for inclusion/exclusion and data analysis occurred in 2010 and 2011. In 2012, the review was updated to cover abstracts published in 2010 and 2011. Identified abstracts, and then full-text articles of included abstracts, were reviewed according to inclusion/exclusion criteria by multiple reviewers. For articles meeting all criteria, two reviewers performed independent data extraction. A gap analysis was performed to identify areas of concentration and gaps in the literature.

Twenty-seven articles met inclusion criteria for this review. Studies varied substantially in sample composition and research methods. CPS examined most often were cervical cancer screening (14 studies) and mammography (13 studies). Potential disparity factors studied most often were disability factors (i.e., disabling condition in 12 studies, disability severity in 10 studies). Stratification of CPS by disparity factors revealed substantial gaps in the literature.

The literature gaps point to a need for high quality research on access disparities among subgroups of individuals with disabilities.