Understanding the barriers and facilitators that influence access to quality cardiovascular care for rural Indigenous peoples: protocol for a scoping review

INTRODUCTION: Māori (the Indigenous peoples of New Zealand) are disproportionately represented in cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevalence, morbidity and mortality rates, and are less likely to receive evidence-based CVD healthcare. Rural Māori experience additional barriers to treatment access, poorer health outcomes and a more significant burden of CVD risk factors compared with non-Māori and Māori living in urban areas. Importantly, these inequities are similarly experienced by Indigenous peoples in other nations impacted by colonisation. Given the scarcity of available literature, we are conducting a scoping review of literature exploring barriers and facilitators in accessing quality CVD healthcare for rural Māori and other Indigenous peoples in nations impacted by colonisation. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A scoping review will be conducted to identify and map the extent of research available and identify any gaps in the literature. This review will be underpinned by Kaupapa Māori Research methodology and will be conducted using Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) methodological framework. A database search of MEDLINE (OVID), PubMed, Embase, SCOPUS, CINAHL Plus, Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre and NZResearch.org will be used to explore empirical research literature. A grey literature search will also be conducted. Two authors will independently review and screen search results in an iterative manner. The New Zealand Ministry of Health Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi) Framework principles will be used as a framework to summarise and construct a narrative of existing literature. Existing literature will also be appraised using the CONSolIDated critERia for strengthening the reporting of health research involving Indigenous Peoples (CONSIDER) statement. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval has not been sought for this review as we are using publicly available data. We will publish this protocol and the findings of our review in an open-access peer-reviewed journal. This protocol has been registered on Open Science Framework (DOI:10.17605/osf.io/xruhy).