Evidence Aid Newsletter: 26 June 2024
Welcome to Evidence Aid’s June 2024 newsletter.
Healthcare is a human right. Unfortunately, many around the world are not afforded this right due to varying accessibility issues. Economic, geographic, epidemiological or cultural barriers limit access to essential health services, particularly for vulnerable and marginalized groups. In 2019, the UN Secretary General announced that “half of the world’s population still lacks access to these essential services and 100 million people are driven into extreme poverty every year due to health-care costs.”
What is more is that in many cases, even when individuals do have access to healthcare, low health literacy—coupled with the use of complex medical jargon and language barriers—results in misuse and misunderstanding of health information, further deepening inequalities and disparities among social groups.
It is therefore critical to implement evidence-based solutions and eliminate barriers to improve access to healthcare for all. As such, in this month’s newsletter, we highlight four Evidence Aid summaries that focus on different ways healthcare can be made more accessible.
DID YOU KNOW? Through our partnership with Translators Without Borders, Evidence Aid summaries are available in nine languages. We strive to make research as accessible as possible by offering summaries in English, Arabic, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Japanese, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese. You can explore our summaries in different languages here by using the dropdown menu to select the desired language.
RELATED EVIDENCE AID SUMMARIES
Factors affecting patients’ ability to access healthcare: overview of systematic reviews
Patients worldwide face barriers to equitable access to health care. The authors of this systematic review found that the most common reported barrier to accessing healthcare in low- and middle-income countries was gender, followed by low income, unavailability of services, and lack of education. In high-income countries, language and communication were common barriers to healthcare, particularly among migrant populations.
Citation: Dawkins B, Renwick C, Ensor T, et al. What factors affect patients’ ability to access healthcare? An overview of systematic reviews. Tropical Medicine & International Health. 2021;26(10):1177-88.
Readability of vaccine information
The readability of vaccine information is higher than an 8th level of reading. The authors of this review stated that difficulty reading vaccine information may influence vaccine hesitancy and recommended that healthcare professionals use guidelines and tools to create easy-to-read vaccine information.
Citation: Okuhara T, et al. Readability assessment of vaccine information: a systematic review for addressing vaccine hesitancy. Patient Education and Counseling. 2022;105(2):331-338.
Professional interpreters can facilitate exchange of information between providers and patients whose first language is not English. It was found that migrant and refugee families with limited English proficiency were more satisfied with aspects of care when a professional interpreter service or bilingual physician was available compared to an ad hoc interpreter or no interpreter. However, the authors of the review stated that more research is needed.
Citation: Boylen S, et al. Impact of professional interpreters on outcomes for hospitalized children from migrant and refugee families with limited English proficiency: a systematic review. JBI Evidence Synthesis. 2020;18(7):1360–88.
mHealth technology for homeless people
This study focused on the impact of providing homeless people with mHealth services. It was reported that while most of the homeless population used their mobile devices for communication purposes, common barriers to effective use limited their access to care.
Citation: Heaslip V, et al. Use of Technology to Promote Health and Wellbeing of People Who Are Homeless: A Systematic Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2021;18(13):6845.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
SOCIAL MEDIA: Two of our volunteers (Sebastien Duverseau and Abbie Butler) promote our summaries and the work of Evidence Aid through several social media accounts (see below). Please follow us to continue to stay up to date on our work and share any content you think is useful.
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COMISSIONED PROJECTS: Read more about our ongoing projects here.
VOLUNTEERS: Vital to the ongoing work of Evidence Aid, volunteers are the backbone of our organization. From searching, screening, and downloading reviews to preparing and writing summaries, the work of volunteers is apparent in every ounce of material we produce. If you’re interested in joining our team, please email info@evidenceaid.org.
FUNDING: If you enjoy our work and agree that it’s important that we continue through 2024 and into 2025, please consider donating here. Anybody who hasn’t donated before will have their donations match funded; please do think about this particularly now when your donation will be doubled!
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Thank you for your support and continued reading!
From,
Your Evidence Aid team