What factors affect patients ’ access to healthcare? Protocol for an overview of systematic reviews

This study aims to address that gap by bringing together evidence of what factors affect patients ’ access to healthcare and exploring how those factors vary in different countries and contexts around the world.MethodsAn overview of reviews will be conducted using a comprehensive search strategy to search four databases: Medline, Embase, Global Health and Cochrane Systematic Reviews. Additional searches will be conducted on the Gates Foundation, the World Health Organisation (WHO)  and World Bank websites. Titles and abstracts will be screened against the eligibility criteria and full-text articles will be obtained for all records that meet the inclusion criteria or where there is uncertainty around eligibility. A data extraction table will be developed during the review pro cess and will be piloted and refined before full data extraction commences. Methodological quality/risk of bias will be assessed for each included study using the AMSTAR 2 tool. The quality assessment will be used to inform the narrative synthesis, but a low-quality score will not necessarily lead t o study exclusion.DiscussionFactors affecting patients ’ ability to access healthcare will be identified and analysed according to different country and context characteristics to shed light on the importance of different factors in different settings. Results will be interpreted accounting for the usual challenges associated with conducting such revi ews. The results may guide future research in this are...
Source: Systematic Reviews - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research