Ten years of ear, nose and throat (ENT) services in Southern Africa: a scoping review
Background While ear, nose, and throat (ENT) diseases are a substantial threat to global health, comprehensive reviews of ENT services in Southern Africa remain scarce. Objective This scoping review provides a decade-long overview of ENT services in Southern Africa and identifies gaps in healthcare...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Taylor & Francis Group
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Global Health Action |
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| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/16549716.2024.2370102 |
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| author | Lufunda Lukama Colleen Aldous Warren Kuhn Charles Michelo Chester Kalinda |
| author_facet | Lufunda Lukama Colleen Aldous Warren Kuhn Charles Michelo Chester Kalinda |
| author_sort | Lufunda Lukama |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background While ear, nose, and throat (ENT) diseases are a substantial threat to global health, comprehensive reviews of ENT services in Southern Africa remain scarce. Objective This scoping review provides a decade-long overview of ENT services in Southern Africa and identifies gaps in healthcare provision. From the current literature, we hope to provide evidence-based recommendations to mitigate the challenges faced by the resource-limited ENT service. Data Sources PubMed, Web of Science, EBSCOhost, Cochrane Library, Cochrane Library, and Scopus. Review Methods On several databases, we conducted a comprehensive literature search on both quantitative and qualitative studies on ENT services in Southern Africa, published between 1 January 2014 and 27 February 2024. The extracted data from the analyzed studies was summarized into themes. Results Four themes in the fourteen studies included in the final analysis described the existing ENT services in Southern Africa: 1. Workforce scarcity and knowledge inadequacies, 2. Deficiencies in ENT infrastructure, equipment, and medication, 3. Inadequate ENT disease screening, management, and rehabilitation and 4. A lack of telehealth technology. Conclusion The Southern African ENT health service faces many disease screening, treatment, and rehabilitation challenges, including critical shortages of workforce, equipment, and medication. These challenges, impeding patient access to ENT healthcare, could be effectively addressed by implementing deliberate policies to train a larger workforce, increase ENT funding for equipment and medication, promote telehealth, and reduce the patient cost of care. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-129bbad3885945abbfd5d11d790efa92 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1654-9880 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Global Health Action |
| spelling | doaj-art-129bbad3885945abbfd5d11d790efa922025-02-05T12:46:14ZengTaylor & Francis GroupGlobal Health Action1654-98802024-12-0117110.1080/16549716.2024.23701022370102Ten years of ear, nose and throat (ENT) services in Southern Africa: a scoping reviewLufunda Lukama0Colleen Aldous1Warren Kuhn2Charles Michelo3Chester Kalinda4University of KwaZulu-NatalUniversity of KwaZulu-NatalUniversity of KwaZulu-NatalNkwazi Research UniversityUniversity of Global Health EquityBackground While ear, nose, and throat (ENT) diseases are a substantial threat to global health, comprehensive reviews of ENT services in Southern Africa remain scarce. Objective This scoping review provides a decade-long overview of ENT services in Southern Africa and identifies gaps in healthcare provision. From the current literature, we hope to provide evidence-based recommendations to mitigate the challenges faced by the resource-limited ENT service. Data Sources PubMed, Web of Science, EBSCOhost, Cochrane Library, Cochrane Library, and Scopus. Review Methods On several databases, we conducted a comprehensive literature search on both quantitative and qualitative studies on ENT services in Southern Africa, published between 1 January 2014 and 27 February 2024. The extracted data from the analyzed studies was summarized into themes. Results Four themes in the fourteen studies included in the final analysis described the existing ENT services in Southern Africa: 1. Workforce scarcity and knowledge inadequacies, 2. Deficiencies in ENT infrastructure, equipment, and medication, 3. Inadequate ENT disease screening, management, and rehabilitation and 4. A lack of telehealth technology. Conclusion The Southern African ENT health service faces many disease screening, treatment, and rehabilitation challenges, including critical shortages of workforce, equipment, and medication. These challenges, impeding patient access to ENT healthcare, could be effectively addressed by implementing deliberate policies to train a larger workforce, increase ENT funding for equipment and medication, promote telehealth, and reduce the patient cost of care.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/16549716.2024.2370102ear, nose, and throat (ent)health servicesresource-limited settingsouthern africa |
| spellingShingle | Lufunda Lukama Colleen Aldous Warren Kuhn Charles Michelo Chester Kalinda Ten years of ear, nose and throat (ENT) services in Southern Africa: a scoping review Global Health Action ear, nose, and throat (ent) health services resource-limited setting southern africa |
| title | Ten years of ear, nose and throat (ENT) services in Southern Africa: a scoping review |
| title_full | Ten years of ear, nose and throat (ENT) services in Southern Africa: a scoping review |
| title_fullStr | Ten years of ear, nose and throat (ENT) services in Southern Africa: a scoping review |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ten years of ear, nose and throat (ENT) services in Southern Africa: a scoping review |
| title_short | Ten years of ear, nose and throat (ENT) services in Southern Africa: a scoping review |
| title_sort | ten years of ear nose and throat ent services in southern africa a scoping review |
| topic | ear, nose, and throat (ent) health services resource-limited setting southern africa |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/16549716.2024.2370102 |
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