Examining the barriers and facilitators for Māori accessing injury and rehabilitation services: a scoping review protocol

Injury accounts for 10% of the global burden of disease. While the literature is scarce, research investigating injury among Indigenous populations has found incidence and prevalence rates are higher, compared with non-Indigenous populations. New Zealand is no exception; Māori have higher rates of injury and disability compared with non-Māori. Given the burden of injury for Māori, this scoping review aims to identify, understand and map available literature related to the barriers and facilitators to accessing injury-related healthcare for Māori in New Zealand.

A scoping review will be conducted to identify the relevant literature and provide an opportunity to highlight key concepts and research gaps in the literature. This work will be guided by the scoping review framework developed by Arksey and O'Malley and will be underpinned by Kaupapa Māori research principles. The overall project is also be guided by a Māori advisory group. Database searches, for example, MEDLINE (Ovid), Scopus and Embase, will be used to identify empirical literature, and Google, New Zealand government websites and relevant non-government organisations will be used to identify relevant grey literature.

To the best of our knowledge, this scoping review is the first to systematically examine the currently available literature relating to the barriers and facilitators of accessing injury-related healthcare for Māori in New Zealand. Ethical approval was not required for this scoping review. Dissemination will include publication of the scoping review findings in a peer-reviewed journal, as well as presentations at conferences, to the project's advisory group, and staff working in the field of Māori disability and rehabilitation.