TY - JOUR
T1 - Fifteen years of emergency medicine literature in Africa
T2 - A scoping review
AU - Mould-Millman, Nee Kofi
AU - Dixon, Julia
AU - Burkholder, Taylor W.
AU - Sefa, Nana
AU - Patel, Hiren
AU - Yaffee, Anna Q.
AU - Osisanya, Amarachukwu
AU - Oyewumi, Tolulope
AU - Botchey, Isaac
AU - Osei-Ampofo, Maxwell
AU - Sawe, Hendry
AU - Lemery, Jay
AU - Cushing, Tracy
AU - Wallis, Lee A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 African Federation for Emergency Medicine
PY - 2019/3
Y1 - 2019/3
N2 - Introduction: Emergency medicine (EM) throughout Africa exists in various stages of development. The number and types of scientific EM literature can serve as a proxy indicator of EM regional development and activity. The goal of this scoping review is a preliminary assessment of potential size and scope of available African EM literature published over 15 years. Methods: We searched five indexed international databases as well as non-indexed grey literature from 1999-2014 using key search terms including “ Africa” “emergency medicine” “emergency medical services” and “disaster.” Two trained physician reviewers independently assessed whether each article met one or more of five inclusion criteria, and discordant results were adjudicated by a senior reviewer. Articles were categorised by subject and country of origin. Publication number per country was normalised by 1,000,000 population. Results: Of 6091 identified articles, 633 (10.4%) were included. African publications increased 10-fold from 1999 to 2013 (9 to 94 articles, respectively). Western Africa had the highest number (212, 33.5%) per region. South Africa had the largest number of articles per country (171, 27.0%) followed by Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana. 537 (84.8%) articles pertained to facility-based EM, 188 (29.7%) to out-of-hospital emergency medicine, and 109 (17.2%) to disaster medicine. Predominant content areas were epidemiology (374, 59.1%), EM systems (321, 50.7%) and clinical care (262, 41.4%). The most common study design was observational (479, 75.7%), with only 28 (4.4%) interventional studies. All-comers (382, 59.9%) and children (91, 14.1%) were the most commonly studied patient populations. Undifferentiated (313, 49.4%) and traumatic (180, 28.4%) complaints were most common. Conclusion: Our review revealed a considerable increase in the growth of African EM literature from 1999 to 2014. Overwhelmingly, articles were observational, studied all-comers, and focused on undifferentiated complaints. The articles discovered in this scoping review are reflective of the relatively immature and growing state of African EM.
AB - Introduction: Emergency medicine (EM) throughout Africa exists in various stages of development. The number and types of scientific EM literature can serve as a proxy indicator of EM regional development and activity. The goal of this scoping review is a preliminary assessment of potential size and scope of available African EM literature published over 15 years. Methods: We searched five indexed international databases as well as non-indexed grey literature from 1999-2014 using key search terms including “ Africa” “emergency medicine” “emergency medical services” and “disaster.” Two trained physician reviewers independently assessed whether each article met one or more of five inclusion criteria, and discordant results were adjudicated by a senior reviewer. Articles were categorised by subject and country of origin. Publication number per country was normalised by 1,000,000 population. Results: Of 6091 identified articles, 633 (10.4%) were included. African publications increased 10-fold from 1999 to 2013 (9 to 94 articles, respectively). Western Africa had the highest number (212, 33.5%) per region. South Africa had the largest number of articles per country (171, 27.0%) followed by Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana. 537 (84.8%) articles pertained to facility-based EM, 188 (29.7%) to out-of-hospital emergency medicine, and 109 (17.2%) to disaster medicine. Predominant content areas were epidemiology (374, 59.1%), EM systems (321, 50.7%) and clinical care (262, 41.4%). The most common study design was observational (479, 75.7%), with only 28 (4.4%) interventional studies. All-comers (382, 59.9%) and children (91, 14.1%) were the most commonly studied patient populations. Undifferentiated (313, 49.4%) and traumatic (180, 28.4%) complaints were most common. Conclusion: Our review revealed a considerable increase in the growth of African EM literature from 1999 to 2014. Overwhelmingly, articles were observational, studied all-comers, and focused on undifferentiated complaints. The articles discovered in this scoping review are reflective of the relatively immature and growing state of African EM.
KW - Africa
KW - EM
KW - EMS
KW - Emergency medical services
KW - Emergency medicine
KW - Literature review
KW - Scoping review
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85060091707&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85060091707&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.afjem.2019.01.006
DO - 10.1016/j.afjem.2019.01.006
M3 - Review article
C2 - 30873352
AN - SCOPUS:85060091707
SN - 2211-419X
VL - 9
SP - 45
EP - 52
JO - African Journal of Emergency Medicine
JF - African Journal of Emergency Medicine
IS - 1
ER -