School of Nursing and Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Howard College Campus, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.
Department of Environmental Science and Health, Faculty of Applied Sciences, National University of Science and Technology, Corner Gwanda Road and Cecil Avenue, PO Box AC 939, Ascot, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
Syst Rev. 2020 Oct 7;9(1):230. doi: 10.1186/s13643-020-01491-7.
Asthma is one of the most common chronic respiratory conditions in the world and is increasing in prevalence, particularly in Africa and other low-income countries. The disproportionately high numbers of premature deaths and severe or uncontrolled cases in many African countries are indicative of their inability to cope with a costly disease like asthma. Progress has, however, been made in understanding the complex and heterogeneous nature of the disease. The objective of this study will be to summarise the epidemiological literature on the nature of asthma in African countries.
We registered a study protocol for a scoping review. The review was designed following the Arksey and O'Malley framework. We will search PubMed/MEDLINE, African Journals Online (AJOL) and relevant grey literature (e.g. Google Scholar, EBSCOhost) from January 1990 onwards. Only primary epidemiological studies of asthma (e.g. frequency, disease mechanisms, associated risk factors and comorbidities) written in English and conducted in Africa will be included. Two reviewers will independently screen all citations, full-text articles and abstract data. Potential conflicts will be resolved through discussion. Findings will be reported using narrative synthesis and tabulation of the summaries.
This scoping review will capture the state of the current epidemiological literature on asthma in African countries. Results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. We anticipate this review will identify gaps and make recommendations for future areas of study.
Open Science Framework http://osf.io/n2p87/.
哮喘是世界上最常见的慢性呼吸道疾病之一，其发病率在不断上升，尤其在非洲和其他低收入国家。许多非洲国家过早死亡和严重或控制不良的病例数量不成比例地居高不下，表明这些国家无法应对哮喘等昂贵疾病。然而，在理解该疾病的复杂性和异质性方面已经取得了进展。本研究的目的是总结非洲国家哮喘的流行病学文献。
我们为这篇范围综述注册了一份研究方案。该综述是按照阿克塞尔和奥马利的框架设计的。我们将从 1990 年 1 月开始在 PubMed/MEDLINE、非洲期刊在线（AJOL）和相关灰色文献（如谷歌学术、EBSCOhost）中进行搜索。只有在非洲用英语进行的关于哮喘的原始流行病学研究（如频率、疾病机制、相关风险因素和合并症）才会被包括在内。两名审查员将独立筛选所有引用、全文文章和摘要数据。潜在的冲突将通过讨论解决。研究结果将使用叙述性综合和总结表进行报告。
本范围综述将捕捉目前关于非洲国家哮喘的流行病学文献的状况。研究结果将发表在同行评议的期刊上。我们预计，该综述将确定差距，并为未来的研究领域提出建议。
开放科学框架 http://osf.io/n2p87/。
