Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: May 12, 2023
Date Accepted: Oct 5, 2023
Digital rehabilitation interventions in sub-Saharan Africa: Protocol for a scoping review
ABSTRACT
Background:
Estimations show that at least one in every three people in the world needs rehabilitation at some point in the course of their illness or injury. Access to rehabilitation services is an essential part of the continuum of care and is integral to achieving Universal Health Coverage. However, most of the world’s population living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), especially in the sub-Saharan African (SSA) region, do not have access to adequate rehabilitation services. The wider adoption of digital solutions has the potential to improve the provision of rehabilitation services in SSA, where only a small percentage of the population has access. There is also little published research about digital rehabilitation from LMICs.
Objective:
The aim of this scoping review is to provide a comprehensive picture of the current evidence of digital interventions in rehabilitation implemented in any health, social, educational or community setting in the sub-Saharan Africa region.
Methods:
The review will follow the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology for scoping reviews. We will develop search strategies for a select number of online databases and search for peer-reviewed scientific publications and screen the reference lists of relevant articles. For selected articles, we will extract data using a customized data extraction form. We will include research articles if they describe or report the use of digital interventions in rehabilitation of patients with any health problem or disability in sub-Saharan Africa.
Results:
Preliminary database search in MEDLINE (EBSCO) was completed in May 2023. The research team will conduct a search of relevant articles in the Autumn. The results will be synthesised and reported under the key conceptual categories of this review, and we expect the final scoping review to be ready for submission in early 2024.
Conclusions:
We anticipate to find gaps in the research, lack of detailed information about digital rehabilitation interventions in SSA, as well as potential areas for further study. We will identify opportunities to inform the development of digital rehabilitation interventions. Clinical Trial: osf.io/6hny9
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