Socioeconomic inequality and barriers to primary care in Scotland: A literature review
This report presents a literature review on barriers to accessing primary care in Scotland. The report demonstrates that multiple factors tied to socioeconomic deprivation impact one’s ability to seek and reach healthcare, and experiences of care. It describes four areas of relevance to policy.
Appendix II: Search strategy (Scottish Government library search)
This library search was conducted using the Scottish Government library’s ‘Knowledge and Evidence’ resource, which accesses 61 bibliographic databases including MEDLINE and ScienceDirect.
The search terms were:
"primary care" or "general practice" or "GP" or dentist* or eyecare or screening or vaccination or pharmacy or "mental health" or "community link worker*" or "occupational therapy"
and
Access or barriers or missingness or disability or socioeconomic or "excess deaths" or "premature disability" or "vulnerable population" or "waiting times" or "delayed presentation" or incentives or "self-management" or "self-medicate" or "missed appointments" or "health inequalit*"
and
NHS and Scotland
Limit to:
2019-2024, Scotland
Results: 351
Exclusion criteria were applied to the article titles and abstracts:
Not socioeconomic inequality focus; Not about primary care access (e.g. studies describing health inequalities relating to socioeconomic inequality, including specific conditions or interventions); Not with a focus on Scotland.
Titles screened: reduced to 71
Further 29 articles excluded (including 6 duplicates) when exclusion criteria were applied to article content.
42 articles included in development of the report