2025/01/01 by Rodríguez-Romero, Beatriz, Vásquez, Jorge Luis Zambrano
Medicine · Social Sciences · #Attitude to Health #Disability Evalutation #Disability Rights and Representation #Down syndrome and intellectual disability research #Health Personnel #Inclusion and Disability in Education and Sport #Medicine and Health Sciences #Persons with disabilities #Social Perception #Social and Behavioral Sciences
paper · doi:10.17605/osf.io/druya
openalex publication_date 2025/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/12/17 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/01
This review systematically identifies, maps, and synthesizes the available evidence on health professional´s attitudes, perceptions, and knowledge regarding people with disabilities (PWD). The project also seeks to highlight knowledge gaps and provide evidence-based recommendations to guide future research, educational initiatives, and policy development aimed at fostering more equitable and inclusive healthcare practices. This scoping review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) statement and was conducted in Medline, Scopus, Web of Science and Psycinfo (search date: February 2025). Objectives This review aims to: (i) identify and describe the characteristics of the studies published in this field; (ii) examine the profile of the participants; (iii) describe the people with disabilities who are the focus of these perceptions; and (iv) analyze the determinants of attitude, perception and knowledge investigated in the included studies. Methods PRISMA-ScR guidelines were followed. Inclusion criteria were: a) Study design: peer-reviewed qualitative studies published within the last 20 years (between January 2009 and December 2024). b) Participants: studies involving health professionals working within the healthcare system. c) Disability: studies were included if they adopted internationally recognized definitions of disability. d) Reporting of health professionals´ attitudes, perceptions and knowledge regarding disability. Studies were excluded if they focused specifically on perceptions of diagnostic methods for disability or on perceptions of specific therapeutic interventions. Data were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative approaches. The qualitative component applied inductive content analysis across four iterative phases, progressing from author-reported findings to a consensus, theory-neutral set of cross-cutting categories. Main Findings A total of 3,122 records were retrieved. Ultimately, 36 studies were included, encompassing data from 952 professionals. Most were conducted in high-income countries, focused on physicians and nurses, and carried out in institutional settings, emphasizing intellectual and developmental disabilities. Regarding the Distribution of studies by determinants of health professionals´ attitudes, perceptions, and knowledge about disability, the most frequently identified categories were Structural and organizational constraints on disability care (27/36; 75.0%) and Professional knowledge & learning (26/36; 72.2%). Conclusions This systematic synthesis indicates that professional perceptions are primarily shaped by structural and educational determinants—such as time, resource, and coordination constraints, along with persistent knowledge gaps—that collectively hinder optimal disability care.