Māori speech-language therapy research in Aotearoa New Zealand: a scoping review

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aim of this scoping review was to document all Māori speech-language therapy research undertaken in New Zealand in the past 20 years and identify gaps in the literature, to establish an evidence base for speech-language therapy services for Māori. Eligible literature included all original research published in peer-reviewed journals, and all honours, Masters and PhD theses. Electronic databases Scopus, PubMed, ProQuest and Medline were searched in February 2020. We also hand-searched thesis repositories and The New Zealand Journal of Speech Language Therapy. The initial search resulted in 338 publications. After duplicates were removed, the remaining 153 publications underwent screening of title and abstract and a further 124 publications were excluded. Thirty-one publications were screened at full text level, with 11 excluded, leaving a total of 20 (11 articles, 9 theses) which were included in the review. A repeat search revealed one further publication, bringing the total to 21 (12 articles, 9 theses) included in the review. Most of the research was produced in the past 10 years. Over half of the theses had a te reo Māori (Māori language) focus, in comparison to only one article. Seven of the 9 theses employed kaupapa Māori research methodologies, whereas only 3 of the 11 articles did so. With such a small number of articles and theses across the entire field of speech-language therapy, there is no aspect of speech-language therapy for Māori that is researched to a level sufficient to inform evidence-based practice.