SynthesisInternational journal of environmental research and public health2018
A Systematic Review of Access to Rehabilitation for People with Disabilities in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.
Synthesis in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 138 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
138 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Evidence-based evaluation for stroke guidelines mentioning traditional and complementary medicine rehabilitation.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2025Pooled it
- Barriers and facilitators for increased accessibility to quality rehabilitation services in low- and middle- income countries: a systematic review.European journal of physical and rehabilitation medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Effectiveness of interventions by non-professional community-level workers or family caregivers to improve outcomes for physical impairments or disabilities in low resource settings: systematic review of task-sharing strategies.Human resources for health · 2023Pooled it
- Barriers to access and utilization of healthcare by children with neurological impairments and disability in low-and middle-income countries: a systematic review.Wellcome open research · 2021Pooled it
- Delivering trauma and rehabilitation interventions to women and children in conflict settings: a systematic review.BMJ global health · 2020Pooled it
- Effective Interventions in Restoring Mobility and Relieving Pain After Lower Limb Amputation.Journal of orthopaedics and sports medicine · 2026Article
- Challenges and Solutions in Provision of Health Services to People With Disabilities During Mass Gatherings.Public health challenges · 2026Article
- Review
- Article
- Institutional mechanisms excluding rehabilitation from medical education in Central Africa: A mixed-methods case study from Cameroon with implications for WHO regional strategy implementation.Dialogues in health · 2026Article
- Association between intrinsic capacity and dementia risk in older Mexicans.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Are primary healthcare facilities in Ethiopia complying with accessibility standards for disability-inclusion? an accessibility audit in Bahir Dar City.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Evaluating data quality at a primary healthcare rehabilitation centre in a low-resource context.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- A qualitative study uncovering rehabilitation challenges: Perspectives of individuals with spinal cord injury.The journal of spinal cord medicine · 2026Article
- Knowledge and Perceptions of Pediatric Hearing Loss among University Students in Jordan.International archives of otorhinolaryngology · 2026Article
- Something old, something borrowed, something new: frameworks to guide cultural adaptations and their documentation in aphasia treatments.Aphasiology · 2026Article
- Review
- Dataset on service access, socio‑economic status, and rehabilitation needs among persons with disabilities in China.BMC research notes · 2026Article
- Development of a Novel Low-Cost Knee Brace to Quantify Human Knee Function During Dynamic Tasks: A Feasibility Study from the North-West Province.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Functional Needs Assessment Tool for estimating population-level functional difficulties and the need for services and assistive products: pilot testing in Western Uganda.Frontiers in rehabilitation sciences · 2026Article
78 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Rehabilitation seeks to optimize functioning of people with impairments and includes a range of specific health services-diagnosis, treatment, surgery, assistive devices, and therapy. Evidence on access to rehabilitation services for people with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is limited. A systematic review was conducted to examine this in depth. In February 2017, six databases were searched for studies measuring access to rehabilitation among people with disabilities in LMICs. Eligible measures of access to rehabilitation included: use of assistive devices, use of specialist health services, and adherence to treatment. Two reviewers independently screened titles, abstracts, and full texts. Data was extracted by one reviewer and checked by a second. Of 13,048 screened studies, 77 were eligible for inclusion. These covered a broad geographic area. 17% of studies measured access to hearing-specific services; 22% vision-specific; 31% physical impairment-specific; and 44% measured access to mental impairment-specific services. A further 35% measured access to services for any disability. A diverse range of measures of disability and access were used across studies making comparability difficult. However, there was some evidence that access to rehabilitation is low among people with disabilities. No clear patterns were seen in access by equity measures such as age, locality, socioeconomic status, or country income group due to the limited number of studies measuring these indicators, and the range of measures used. Access to rehabilitation services was highly variable and poorly measured within the studies in the review, but generally shown to be low. Far better metrics are needed, including through clinical assessment, before we have a true appreciation of the population level need for and coverage of these services.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.