Beyond Barriers in Studying Disparities in Women’s Access to Health Services in Ontario, Canada

Abstract

Women live within complex and differing social, economic, and environmental circumstances that influence options to seek health care. In this article we report on a metasynthesis of qualitative research concerning access disparities for women in the Canadian province of Ontario, where there is a publicly funded health care system. We took a metastudy approach to analysis of results from 35 relevant qualitative articles to understand the conditions and conceptualizations of women's inequitable access to health care. The articles' authors attributed access disparities to myriad barriers. We focused our analysis on these barriers to understand the contributing social and political forces. We found that four major, sometimes countervailing, forces shaped access to health care: (a) contextual conditions, (b) constraints, (c) barriers, and (d) deterrents. Complex convergences of these forces acted to push, pull, obstruct, and/or repel women as they sought health care, resulting in different patterns of inequitable access.

Depression and discrimination in the lives of women, transgender and gender liminal people in Ontario, Canada

“…, Angus et al . ). In substantiating links between discrimination and poor mental health, our findings of higher levels of depression and barriers to mental healthcare for people who experience everyday discrimination adds to literature that implicates racism, cisnormativity, homophobia/heterosexism, classism and their interlocking affects in risks for depression and unmet healthcare needs.…”

Research in cancer care disparities in countries with universal healthcare: mapping the field and its conceptual contours

“…Angus and colleagues [4] identified four major, linked forces shaping women's access to healthcare in Ontario, Canada: contextual conditions (difficult life circumstances that made promoting or protecting health difficult), constraints (restrictions on people's capacities to take advantage of health services once a problem was identified), barriers (facets of policy and healthcare organization that blocked efforts to obtain care and information, such as limited availability and poor provider communication) and deterrents (features of health systems that patients found sufficiently unsatisfactory to discourage use of otherwise accessible services). Countering ideas that access can be understood in terms of 'pathways' or relatively simple 'mechanisms', their findings capture 'how interacting social factors can differently affect women's health-seeking behaviours and opportunities to receive equitable treatment' ( [4] p.489).…”

Access Barriers to Health Care among People with Disabilities in the Kumasi Metropolis of Ghana

“…First, it can reduce the social and economic burden associated with health problems, such as possible loss of income (Angus et al, 2012). Life expectancy is likely to improve as individuals experience quality and accessible healthcare (Mugilwa et al, 2005, Marmot et al, 2008.…”