A Systematic Review of Qualitative Studies in Health Inequity with an Intercategorical Intersectional Perspective

Introduction: Intersectionality has been gaining prominence both as a concept and as a theorical and analytical framework in health research in the past decades. To the point that “Intersectional Framework” was introduced as a MeSH term in PubMed in 2022. Leslie McCall explained that intracategorical studies inaugurated the study of intersectionality (research focusing on a particular social group defined by a specific combination of gender, race and social class, for instance, black women in deprived neighbourhoods), and this is the most frequent way in which intersectionality have been analised in health qualitative research. Nevertheless, the concept of health inequity implies comparison between social groups (or intersectional strata). For this reason, we are interested in intercategorical research (e.g. research comparing two or more social groups defined by different combinations of gender, race, social class or other social categories related with social stratification).

The aim of this research is to identify and analyse qualitative research studies on health inequity applying an intercategorical intersectional approach. By this, we understand, research that compares two or more groups defined by intersectional criteria. The goal is to identify how health inequity understanding can be enriched when intersectionality is considered (in terms of diversity, specificity, accumulation of effects, interactions, and other key concepts in the literature on intersectionality).

To do so we have started to carry out a systematic review of qualitative studies following the 2020 PRISMA guidelines for this kind of research.

Data sources: The following databases are being consulted: Pubmed, Web of Science and Scopus.

Study selection: The selected works had to be studies comparing at least two groups of people (intercategorical and intersectional perspective) using qualitative methodology or at least mixed designs. They should be explicitly or implicitly studies on health inequity, inequality or disparities, and written in English or Spanish.