Health Care Access among Underserved Groups

Dear Colleagues,

We are delighted to organize a Special Issue on the health care access among underserved groups in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Underserved populations face persistent and systemic barriers to accessing health care. These barriers are complex and numerous and include cultural, financial, literacy, linguistic and geographical barriers as well as barriers caused by services and health care providers that are not aimed at the needs of underserved populations. Lack of access to health care contributes to profound and enduring health disparities.
Underserved populations include, but are not limited to, the following groups:

• Ethnic and racial minorities;
• Migrants, including refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants;
• Indigenous populations;
• Roma, travelers;
• Homeless people;
• Sex workers;
• Transgender persons and other sexual minorities;
• Drug addicts;
• Prisoners;
• Religious minorities;
• People with disabilities.

This Special Issue is open to any subject area, disease/health focus and geographical scope as long as they advance our understanding of pathways for improving health care access of underserved populations. Our interests include, but are not limited to, studies on innovative health care solutions for underserved populations; studies that address intersectionality and how belonging to different (sub)groups influences the access to care; studies that address the health care system as a complex system and apply the principles of complexity science to provide new insights as to why health care barriers are still in place; and studies that combine a high academic standard with a practical focus on improving health care access to underserved populations. The listed keywords below suggest just a few of the many possibilities.

Dr. Jeanine Suurmond
Prof. Charles Agyemang
Dr. Morten Skovdal
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.