JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Rehabilitation aims to restore and optimize the functioning of impaired systems. It is an integral part of universal health coverage and access to it is a human right for people with disabilities. It is important to identify the key challenges to rehabilitation services in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) from a user, health system and service provider perspective

Objective:

To identify the key challenges to rehabilitation services in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) from a user, health system and service provider perspective

Methods:

This scoping review was conducted in accordance with the five steps framework proposed by Arksey and O'Malley and a comprehensive electronic search was run to identify published articles on rehabilitation services in Sub-Saharan Africa. Of all 131 articles retrieved in the searches, 83 articles were assessed for eligibility and 15 papers met the inclusion criteria were considered

Results:

The results showed that people with disabilities in Sub-Saharan Africa face multifactorial challenges to access rehabilitation services. Poor access to rehabilitation services is associated with less attention given to rehabilitation by governments which led to less funding, cultural and social beliefs, less and poorly equipped rehabilitation centers, failure of the health systems, lack of trainings to professionals, logistical and financial constraints.This review also revealed that digital rehabilitation reduced costs and improved access to services in hard-to-reach geographical areas. However, it faced connectivity issues, inaccessibility to technology and lack of technical knowledge, lack of privacy and ethical challenges

Conclusions:

This review concludes that people with disabilities face multifactorial challenges to access rehabilitation services in SSA. It is therefore critical to address these challenges to optimize patients’ health outcomes and offer better rehabilitation services.