Systematic Review of Stigmas Present against Disabled Children Globally and How These Stigmas Vary across Regions and Population and Comprehensive Review of the Perceptions and Attitudes that Disabled Children Face Globally

Abstract

A Thesis submitted to The University of Arizona College of Medicine - Phoenix in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Medicine.Current literature shows that disabled individuals are vulnerable compared to their abled body counterparts in a variety of measures, disability varies across regions and cultures and that attitudes toward these disabilities may also vary globally. Literature searches using keyword searches were done based on search strings of “childhood disability” with other phrases. Outcome variables included region, population studied, a general description of the attitudes, a broader category into which the type of attitude falls and whether or not there were persistent negative attitudes toward disability. Meta analyses were done for outcomes. An initial 114 articles were screened to be relevant to the topic. 15 articles had data extracted. Descriptive results demonstrated that cultural and religious norms are associated with negative attitudes toward disability. Meta analyses did not demonstrate any statistical significance between the cultural, religious or regional factors in the likelihood of having negative attitudes toward disability. The association between religion, culture and region and the likelihood of having negative attitudes was not statistically significant. The presence of negative attitudes on the basis of culturally or religiously held beliefs, globally, does appear to exist on review of the literature.This item is part of the College of Medicine - Phoenix Scholarly Projects 2019 collection. For more information, contact the Phoenix Biomedical Campus Library at [email protected]