Systemic and Intrinsic Considerations to Improving Rehabilitation Access in Filipino Americans

Background and/or Objectives: There are few studies that examine factors affecting access and utilization of rehabilitation services in the Asian American community, with even fewer disaggregated data across all Asian subgroups. Within the Filipino American (FA) community, values such as hiya (shame), utang na loob (debt to inner self), bahala na (leave it to God), and kapwa (fellowship) strongly influence healthcare decisions. The aim of this level 2 decision analysis project is to understand the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of FAs about Rehabilitation Medicine and the factors that affect their access and utilization of services.

Design: We designed a Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) study and first performed a PRISMA-guided literature review. Using PubMed MEDLINE and Google Scholar, studies from the United States and Philippines from 2000-2025 were screened using the following search terms: Filipino and/or rehabilitation, disability, and activities of daily living.

Setting : Online Review

Participants : n/a

Interventions: We developed a survey to determine FA’s knowledge of PM&R, and understand the role cultural beliefs and socio-economic challenges play on access and utilization of rehabilitation services.

Main Outcome Measures: Perceptions towards rehabilitation, knowledge of physiatry, solutions to improve functional outcomes

Results: A review of 173 articles show limited studies regarding FA perceptions towards rehabilitation, knowledge of physiatry, and solutions to improve functional outcomes. Using Google Forms, our survey examines these limitations and completes the following objectives: (1) assess knowledge of PM&R in accordance with the definition by AAPM&R, (2) identify systemic barriers to rehabilitation, and (3) examine the impact of cultural beliefs and socio-economic challenges on pursuing rehabilitation services in FAs.

Conclusions: This survey is the first study designed to identify factors in the Fil-Am community that affect healthcare decisions regarding use of rehabilitation medicine. Future directions include further peer review to improve question clarity, accuracy, and completeness and dissemination across multiple cities in 2025. Findings will inform initiatives to advance PM&R in this community.