A Scoping Review on the Influence of Housing on the Health and Well-Being of People with a Spinal Cord Injury/Dysfunction.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Despite the growing recognition of housing as a significant concern for individuals with a spinal cord injury/dysfunction (SCI/D), there is limited research available on this topic. This scoping review aimed to identify and describe the literature on housing across the continuum for people with an SCI/D.

METHODS

This review utilized Arksey and O'Malley's scoping review framework. Five databases were searched including MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), CINAHL Plus (EBSCO), PsycINFO (Ovid), and Web of Science (Core Collection). In addition, Google's Advanced Search function was used to search the gray literature, and reference lists from the included studies were scanned. A preliminary assessment of the Theory of Access (TOA) constructs and their relationships was conducted using Penchansky and Thomas' Theory of Access and Saurman's additional updates. An adapted version of this theory was developed by the research team to identify the types of studies that assess the TOA's six constructs and was used to identify knowledge gaps to advance research in this field.

RESULTS

The search yielded 25,861 records, with 36 studies meeting the inclusion criteria. Data analysis revealed the participants' sociodemographic and impairment characteristics, as well as essential information pertaining to housing across the continuum for individuals with an SCI/D, both of which were inconsistently reported across the studies. Several studies ( = 18) reported on the influence of home adaptations on the health and well-being of individuals with an SCI/D. When framed within the TOA, issues of accessibility presented the most substantial barriers for the SCI/D community, followed by acceptability and availability.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings of this scoping review suggest that housing is an understudied topic and that further research is required to generate evidence to better support the housing needs of individuals with an SCI/D globally.