Ten years of ear, nose and throat (ENT) services in Southern Africa: a scoping review.

Autor:	Lukama L; College of Health Sciences, Nelson R Mandela School of Clinical Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.; Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Ndola Teaching Hospital, Ndola, Zambia., Aldous C; College of Health Sciences, Nelson R Mandela School of Clinical Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa., Kuhn W; College of Health Sciences, Nelson R Mandela School of Clinical Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa., Michelo C; Global Health Institute, Nkwazi Research University, Lusaka, Zambia., Kalinda C; Bill and Joyce Cummings Institute of Global Health, University of Global Health Equity, Kigali, Rwanda.; Howard College Campus, College of Health Sciences, School of Nursing and Public Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	Global health action [Glob Health Action] 2024 Dec 31; Vol. 17 (1), pp. 2370102. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jun 27.
DOI:	10.1080/16549716.2024.2370102
Abstrakt:	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.
Databáze:	MEDLINE
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