Lindsay Sally, Abdeahad Narges, Leo Sarah, Phonepraseuth Janice
Bloorview Research Institute, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Disabil Rehabil. 2025 Jun 28:1-24. doi: 10.1080/09638288.2025.2525545.
Children and youth with disabilities and their families living in rural areas often face additional challenges to accessing services and often experience more social isolation than children and youth in urban centers. However, we know relatively little about their lived experiences. The purpose of this review was to explore the experiences of children and youth with disabilities and their parents who live in rural areas.
We conducted a systematic review of qualitative studies. We searched six international databases Ovid Medline, Embase, Healthstar, CINAHL Plus, Scopus, and Web of Science.
Fifty-five articles met our inclusion criteria involving 1219 participants, spanning across 21 countries over a 34-year period. Our findings involved the following themes: (1) challenges accessing health care, education and community services; (2) caregiving challenges; (3) stigma, discrimination and isolation; (4) coping and resilience strategies; and (5) intersectional factors affecting rural experiences.
Our results highlight how living in a rural area can exacerbate challenges for children and youth with disabilities. However, some benefits to rural life exist despite the difficulties that location presents. More rural health care providers and resources are needed to support children with disabilities.
生活在农村地区的残疾儿童和青少年及其家庭在获得服务方面往往面临更多挑战，并且与城市中心的儿童和青少年相比，他们往往经历更多的社会隔离。然而，我们对他们的生活经历了解相对较少。本综述的目的是探讨生活在农村地区的残疾儿童和青少年及其父母的经历。
我们对定性研究进行了系统综述。我们检索了六个国际数据库：Ovid Medline、Embase、Healthstar、CINAHL Plus、Scopus和Web of Science。
55篇文章符合我们的纳入标准，涉及1219名参与者，涵盖21个国家，时间跨度为34年。我们的研究结果包括以下主题：（1）获得医疗保健、教育和社区服务的挑战；（2）护理挑战；（3）耻辱感、歧视和隔离；（4）应对和恢复力策略；以及（5）影响农村经历的交叉因素。
我们的结果突出了生活在农村地区如何加剧残疾儿童和青少年面临的挑战。然而，尽管地理位置带来了困难，但农村生活也存在一些好处。需要更多的农村医疗保健提供者和资源来支持残疾儿童。
