Palliative Care Research Utilising Intersectionality: A scoping review

Abstract

Abstract Background Access to palliative care is recognised as a human right, yet clear disparities exist. There have been recent appeals to examine people’s contexts and interactions with social systems which for many, adversely influence their utilisation of palliative care. Intersectionality provides a way to understand these drivers of inequity and ultimately advocate for change. Aim To identify and describe published studies utilising intersectionality in relation to need, access and experience of palliative care. Design: A scoping review. Data sources: Medline, Scopus, CINAHL and Google Scholar databases and a manual search were undertaken for studies published up to January 2023. Included studies were evidence based articles where palliative or end of life care was the focus and intersectionality was identified and/or applied to the research that was undertaken. Results Ten published studies were included. An analytic framework was developed to identify the extent that intersectionality was utilised in each study. Conclusions Very limited research to date has utilised intersectionality to understand access, utilisation and experience of palliative care. This scoping review demonstrates intersectionality can provide a way to illuminate rich understandings of inequity in palliative care. It is imperative that future palliative research incorporates an intersectionality focus to further clarify the needs and experiences of structurally marginalised groups.