Who are the “Hard-to-Reach” groups in chronic-health and health technology research? – A scoping review

Abstract

Many in health and technology research opt to focus on those who are already “engaged”, not those who are considered “hard-to-reach” or “unreached”. This exacerbates the digital divide and inequity in healthcare. We report findings of a scoping review of literature in PubMed/Medline from 2000-2022. 90 of 795 articles were identified based upon 1) the health researchers’ recruitment of unreached groups with a chronic condition for active participation in a study and 2) clear definitions of who they considered to be unreached. Findings support the need for interdisciplinary and community-level involvement to reach and include unreached groups in health studies.