Environmental constraints are logistical factors that make it harder to seek help (Montaño & Kasprzyk, 2015). The term “environmental” is used to emphasize that these things are primarily external (e.g., access to reliable transportation), rather than internal (e.g., a person’s knowledge or perceptions). Systematic reviews indicate that these constraints can include things such as: transportation, travel distance, health insurance coverage, cost, waiting lists, provider availability, scheduling difficulties, work and family constraints, and lack of established relationship with a primary care provider, lack of multi-lingual providers, immigration/residency status, and inadequate technology infrastructure (Han et al., 2017; Martinez et al., 2020; Roberts et al., 2018).
For more details about this help-seeking determinant, please read Hammer and colleagues (2024), from which a portion of the information about this construct is excerpted.
A description of available environmental constraints measures can be found on the Environmental Constraints Measures page.