ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Rehabil. Sci.
Sec. Strengthening Rehabilitation in Health Systems
A review of assistive product prices in 12 countries
Natália Hedlund Jardim 1
Vinicius Delgado Ramos 1
Irene Calvo 2
Johan Borg 3
Kylie Shae 2
1. Instituto de Medicina Física e Reabilitação, Hospital das Clinicas HCFMUSP, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
2. Medical Devices and Assistive Technology Team, Health Systems, Access and Data Division, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
3. School of Health and Welfare, Dalarna University, Falun, Sweden
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Abstract
Purpose: The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimate that over 2.5 billion people need assistive technology, yet access remains limited. In response to this pressing need, WHO has maintained, since 2016, a Priority Assistive Products List (APL) with 50 priority assistive products. In 2024, an update was launched to revise and expand the list based on new evidence and stakeholder input. This paper presents the price review component of the update. The review consisted of collecting global price data and classifying assistive products into price ranges to support the decision-making process for the updated APL. Materials and methods: From an initial list of 300 products prioritized by the WHO Technical Advisory Group on Assistive Technology, 120 products were selected for the price collection by domain experts. Twelve countries, representing a range of income levels and geographic regions, were chosen for data collection. Focal points in each country gathered the lowest prices for the selected assistive products. The collected price data was then used to classify the products into five Gross Domestic Product-standardized price ranges. Results: Focal points from all 12 countries submitted price data to varying extents. In eight countries, the data covered over 75% of products, whereas in the remaining four countries, the coverage was below 50%, as focal points faced challenges such as limited supplier access or time constraints. The collected data provided insights into the affordability of assistive products across countries and product categories. Conclusion: The price analysis contributed essential evidence to the APL update and highlighted global disparities in affordability of assistive products. The data showed an inverse relationship between national income level and affordability, where the lower the income, the greater the financial burden assistive products represent.
Summary
Keywords
Affordability, assistive product, Assistive Technology, cost, Price, priority assistive products list
Received
30 October 2025
Accepted
08 January 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Hedlund Jardim, Delgado Ramos, Calvo, Borg and Shae. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Natália Hedlund Jardim
Disclaimer
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