A Systematic Review of What Barriers and Facilitators Prevent and Enable Physical Healthcare Services Access for Autistic Adults

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. two authors of this publication are identified as autistic in the project.

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Mason, D., Ingham, B., Urbanowicz, A., Michael, C., Birtles, H., Woodbury-Smith, M., Brown, T., James, I. A., Scarlett, C., Nicolaidis, C., & Parr, J. R. (2019). A Systematic Review of What Barriers and Facilitators Prevent and Enable Physical Healthcare Services Access for Autistic Adults. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 49(8), 3387-3400. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04049-2

Publication date: 23 May 2019 Added to AutiHub: 18 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
11
Publication authors identified as autistic
2 / 11 (18.2%)
  1. David Mason *
  2. Barry Ingham
  3. Anna Urbanowicz
  4. Cos Michael *
  1. Heather Birtles
  2. Marc Woodbury-Smith
  3. Toni Brown
  4. Ian A James
  1. Clare Scarlett
  2. Christina Nicolaidis
  3. Jeremy R. Parr

Abstract

Autistic people are more likely to: be diagnosed with a range of physical health conditions (i.e. cardio-vascular disease); experience premature mortality (for most disease categories); and experience barriers to effectively accessing healthcare. This systematic review sought to identify studies that report on barriers and facilitators to physical healthcare access for autistic people. A total of 3111 records were screened and six studies were included: two quantitative, two qualitative, and two mixed-methodology studies. Patient-provider communication, sensory sensitivities, and executive functioning/planning issues emerged as important barriers to healthcare. Recommendations for clinicians and those planning services are discussed.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 13:58.

Cited references
54
With a DOI
50
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
3
6 / 54 (11.1%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
3 / 54 (5.6%)
References with detected author names
51 / 54 (94.4%)
Without detected author names
3
Without a structured title
3
Without a stable identifier
3
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
228
From DOI or external metadata
228
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
7
98 / 228 (43.0%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 130 / 228 (57.0%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
20 / 228 (8.8%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 20 / 98 (20.4%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 7 / 184 (3.8%).
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