Using locational data in a novel mixed-methods sequence design: Identifying critical health care barriers for people with disabilities in Malawi.

The primary aim of this study was to determine which health care barriers were most important for people with disabilities in Malawi. To accomplish this, we devised a sequential mixed-methods research design that integrated locational survey data and qualitative data from field studies. Our secondary aim was to evaluate this research design not only as a design-solution to our particular research objective, but as a tool with more general applicability within social sciences.

Predictors of negative beliefs toward the sexual rights and perceived sexual healthcare needs of people with physical disabilities in South Africa.

Although sexuality is a ubiquitous human need, recent empirical research has shown that people without disabilities attribute fewer sexual rights and perceive sexual healthcare to benefit fewer people with disabilities, compared to non-disabled people. Within a global context, such misperceptions have tangible, deleterious consequences for people with disabilities (e.g.

Combining survey data, GIS and qualitative interviews in the analysis of health service access for persons with disabilities.

Background: Equitable access to health services is a key ingredient in reaching health for persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups. So far, research on access to health services in low- and middle-income countries has largely relied on self-reported survey data. Realizing that there may be substantial discrepancies between perceived and actual access, other methods are needed for more precise knowledge to guide health policy and planning.

Intimacy, intercourse and adjustments: Experiences of sexual life of a group of people with physical disabilities in South Africa.

There is a growing recognition of the sexual and reproductive rights of people with disabilities, and since the World Health Organisation's World Report on Disability, increased international attention has been given to these issues. Past research, however, suggests that this group encounter barriers to sexual and reproductive rights, which are both physical and attitudinal. Against this backdrop, this article employs a sequential mixed qualitative methodology to explore the practical and subjective experiences of 13 people with physical disabilities in South Africa, with regard to their sexual lives and experiences of sexuality.

The sexual and reproductive rights and benefit derived from sexual and reproductive health services of people with physical disabilities in South Africa: beliefs of non-disabled people.

There is a body of theoretical work, and some empirical research, which suggests that non-disabled people assume people with physical disabilities are not suitable romantic partners, do not have sexual drives or desires, or are not sexually active. It has also been proposed that people with physical disabilities face barriers to sexual healthcare access which are structural as well as social. The present paper explores non-disabled South Africans' beliefs concerning the degree to which non-disabled respondents enjoy sexual and reproductive rights, and benefit from sexual and reproductive healthcare, compared to people without disability.

Exploring structural violence in the context of disability and poverty in Zimbabwe.

Background: While it is widely assumed that disability, poverty and health are closely linked, research falls short of fully understanding the link. One approach to analysing the links between disability and poverty is through the concept of structural violence, referring to social structures that contribute to the impoverishment of individuals or communities. These structures can be political, ecological, legal and economic, among others.

The sexual lives of people with disabilities within low- and middle-income countries: a scoping study of studies published in English.

Background: Although approximately 80% of the global population of people with disabilities reside in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), very little is known about their sexual lives due to a lack of empirical data. We aimed to provide a scoping review of English-language research conducted on disability and sexuality in LMICs.

Objective: Our research questions concerned what topics in disability and sexuality have (and have not) been investigated, where this research has been carried out, and how this research has been conducted.

Dating persons with physical disabilities: the perceptions of South Africans without disabilities.

There is good reason to believe that the attitudes of persons without disability towards dating a person with a physical disability might be unfavourable. However, in general, and in the Global South in particular, there is a dearth of research in this area. This study sought to take the first step in addressing this lack of enquiry, by surveying the attitudes of a general population sample in South Africa towards dating people with physical disabilities, using a vignette.

Exploring the interaction of activity limitations with context, systems, community and personal factors in accessing public health care services: A presentation of South African case studies.

Background: There are many factors that influence access to public health services, such as the context people live in, the existing health services, and personal, cultural and community factors. People with disabilities (activity limitations), through their experience of health services, may offer a particular understanding of the performance of the health services, thus exposing health system limitations more clearly than perhaps any other health service user.

Aim: This article explores how activity limitations interact with factors related to context, systems, community and personal factors in accessing public health care services in South Africa.

Beyond the checklist: understanding rural health vulnerability in a South African context.

Background: Vulnerability in the past has sometimes been measured and understood in terms of checklists or common understanding. It is argued here that vulnerability is a more complex issue than this. Although checklists of vulnerable groups are important, they do not capture the essence and dynamics of vulnerability.

A household perspective on access to health care in the context of HIV and disability: a qualitative case study from Malawi.

Background: Equitable access to health care is a challenge in many low-income countries. The most vulnerable segments of any population face increased challenges, as their vulnerability amplifies problems of the general population. This implies a heavy burden on informal care-givers in their immediate and extended households.

Access to tuberculosis services for individuals with disability in rural Malawi, a qualitative study.

Tuberculosis occurs in all populations, but with higher prevalence in poor contexts. Vulnerable groups, including individuals with disability, run a particular risk due to poorer access to information and health services. Studying access to tuberculosis services for vulnerable groups in poor contexts may provide useful insight into the quality of such services in low-income contexts.

"I just answer 'yes' to everything they say": access to health care for deaf people in Worcester, South Africa and the politics of exclusion.

Objective: To explore whether there are other factors besides communication difficulties that hamper access to health care services for deaf patients.

Methods: Qualitative methodology using semi-structured interviews with 16 deaf participants from the National Institute for the Deaf in Worcester and 3 Key informants from the Worcester area, South Africa.

Results: Communication difficulties were found to be a prominent barrier in accessing health care services.

Seeking care for epilepsy and its impacts on households in a rural district in southern Malawi.

Background: Epilepsy is a disability as defined in the 2012 Disability Act of the Government of Malawi.

Objectives: This article explores the health-seeking behaviour of people with epilepsy in a rural town in southern Malawi and how having a person with epilepsy impacts on the households' productivity.

Method: A snowball approach was used to identify persons with various forms of disabilities.

Understanding the local context for the application of global mental health: a rural South African experience.

Background: The global mental health movement has supplied ample evidence of treatment gaps for mental health care in low and middle-income countries. It is also clear that substantial progress has been made in developing an evidence base for innovative treatments which have been shown to work. It is only through rich and detailed understandings of local contexts and individual experiences that the challenges global mental health faces can be fully appreciated.

Accessing community health services: challenges faced by poor people with disabilities in a rural community in South Africa.

Poor people with disabilities who live in poor rural societies experience unique problems in accessing health services. Their situation is influenced by multiple factors which unfold and interplay throughout the person's life course. The difficulties do not only affect the person with a disability and his or her family, but also impact on the relevant care unit.

The evil circle of poverty: a qualitative study of malaria and disability.

Background: This article discusses the link between disability and malaria in a poor rural setting. Global malaria programmes and rehabilitation programmes are organized as vertical and separate programmes, and as such they focus on prevention, cure and control, and disability respectively. When looking at specific conditions and illnesses, the impairing long-term consequences of illness incidents during childhood are not questioned.

HIV/AIDS and disability in Southern Africa: a review of relevant literature.

Purpose. HIV/AIDS has grown to become the biggest epidemic in modern history. Southern Africa is at the epicentre of the global epidemic, with just of a third of the world's HIV-positive population living here.

"I thought . . . maybe this is my chance": sexual abuse against girls and women with disabilities in Malawi.

This article is based on a pilot study conducted in Malawi in 2006 that intended to uncover episodes of violence and abuse against women and girls with disabilities and furthermore to explore the mechanisms behind such acts. The stories of 23 women with disabilities were obtained through in-depth semistructured interviews that covered, among other topics, aspects of sexual abuse experienced by or known to these women. None of the informants reported having been sexually abused during childhood.