BACKGROUND

Access to oxygen therapy is essential for ensuring a functioning health care system. Despite its widespread application across multiple patient groups and all ages, there is a lack of understanding about community perceptions and experiences while receiving oxygen therapy for acute conditions. We aimed to understand patient and caregiver perceptions of oxygen therapy in facility-based settings for acute hypoxemic conditions.

METHODS

We conducted a scoping review. We searched Medline, Embase, and Web of Science (26 February 2024) for original studies published since 2000 relating to patient or caregiver perceptions and experiences of oxygen for an acute medical need in health facility settings. We used an adapted theoretical framework of acceptability to extract and structure the findings.

RESULTS

Searches returned 10 425 unique records, and 25 articles were included. 20 were from high-income countries, and 18 were qualitative studies. The results showed that patient and caregiver attitudes and feelings about oxygen therapy are strongly influenced by perceived effectiveness, which was almost universally positive. Patients and their caregivers suffer different types of burdens, and these are greater for more advanced respiratory therapies than for simple oxygen therapy. Patient and caregiver understanding of oxygen therapy was low, presenting an opportunity for improved communication. Opportunity costs were highest in caregivers of neonates, who were often separated from their infants for long periods, and out-of-pocket costs were a major consideration in low- and middle-income countries.

CONCLUSIONS

In this scoping review, we found distinctions in caregiver and patient burden, and their perspectives of oxygen varied between country income. Intervention coherence - the extent to which the patient and their caregivers understand the treatment - was singled out as the key policy area for improvement. Educational campaigns, like those implemented for previous public health emergencies, could lead to increased public knowledge, and thus acceptability, of oxygen therapy.