Table 1 Inclusion and exclusion criteria for peer-reviewed and gray literatures

Definition of rehabilitation

• Aligned with the World Health Organization’s definition of rehabilitation [1], including the rehabilitation of conditions arising from injury, surgery or post-surgical care, disease, mental health, congenital conditions, age, or illness

• Vocational rehabilitation

• Rehabilitation services specific to substance abuse needs

Scope

• The political, economic, and bureaucratic factors that impact health policy prioritization of rehabilitation and/or assistive technology

• The prioritization and implementation of policies that advance rehabilitation and/or assistive technology in national health systems

• Only includes meso- or micro-level factors – for example, articles with an exclusive focus on service delivery, program evaluations, or articles describing target group or provider experiences with rehabilitation programs

Publication data

• Published after 2000, since the momentum around rehabilitation and its integration into health policy and systems research was gained at the turn of the century including its inclusion into global goals like universal health coverage

• Published prior to 2000

Level of focus

• At the country or global level

• If a multi-country paper, any country income level

• If a single country case study, focused on a low- or middle-income country

• Papers focused exclusively on a single, high-income country case study

Language of publication

• English language publications

• Publications written in a language other than English