Back to Search Start Over

The study of ableism in population health: a critical review

Authors :
Kara M. Mannor
Belinda L. Needham
Source :
Frontiers in Public Health, Vol 12 (2024)
Publication Year :
2024
Publisher :
Frontiers Media S.A., 2024.

Abstract

Over the past three decades, health equity has become a guiding framework for documenting, explaining, and informing the promotion of population health. With these developments, scholars have widened public health’s aperture, bringing systems of oppression sharply into focus. Additionally, some researchers in disability and health have advocated for utilizing socially grounded frameworks to investigate the health of disabled people. Yet, naming ableism, much less operationalizing it for the empirical study of health, remains scant. This paper critically reviews the study of ableism as a social determinant of disabled people’s health within population health research. First, we provide an orientation to the present state of this literature by looking to the past. We briefly trace a history of traditional approaches to studying disability and health and alternatives that have emerged from critiques of the individualized lens that has dominated this work. Next, we delineate the operation of ableism across social levels. We characterize how ableism has been studied in population health in terms of levels of analysis (intrapersonal, interpersonal, institutional, and structural) and measures of interest. To conclude, we discuss hinderances to and promising avenues toward population health research that advances health equity for disabled people.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
22962565 and 97611972
Volume :
12
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Frontiers in Public Health
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.75460c48424e4ab66a97611972d08f
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1383150