Epidemiology, health systems and stakeholders in rheumatic heart disease in Africa : a systematic review protocol
Date
2016
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BMJ Publishing Group
Abstract
ntroduction:
Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is a
chronic disease affecting the heart valves, secondary to
group A streptococcal infection (GAS) and subsequent
acute rheumatic fever (ARF). However, RHD cure and
preventative measures are inextricably linked with
socioeconomic development, as the disease mainly
affects children and young adults living in poverty. In
order to address RHD, public health officials and
health policymakers require up-to-date knowledge on
the epidemiology of GAS, ARF and RHD, as well as the
existing enablers and gaps in delivery of evidence-
based care for these conditions. We propose to
conduct a systematic review to assess the literature
comprehensively, synthesising all existing quantitative
and qualitative data relating to RHD in Africa.
Methods and analysis:
We plan to conduct a
comprehensiveliteraturesearchusinganumberof
databases and reference lists of relevant articles
published from January 1995 to December 2015. Two
evaluators will independently review and extract data from
each article. Additionally, we will assess overall study
quality and risk of bias, using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale
and the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme criteria for
quantitative and qualitative studies, respectively. We will
meta-analyse estimates of prevalence, incidence, case
fatality and mortality for each of the conditions separately
for each country. Qualitative meta-analysis will be
conducted for facilitators and barriers in RHD health
access. Lastly, we will create a list of key stakeholders.
This protocol is registered in the PROSPERO
International Prospective Register of systematic reviews,
registration number CRD42016032852
Description
CITATION: Moloi, A. H., et al. 2016. Epidemiology, health systems and stakeholders in rheumatic heart disease in Africa : a systematic review protocol. BMJ Open, 6:e011266, doi:10.1136/
bmjopen-2016-011266
The original publication is available at http://bmjopen.bmj.com
The original publication is available at http://bmjopen.bmj.com
Keywords
Rheumatic heart disease -- Africa, Medical protocols -- Africa, Rheumatic fever -- Africa, Streptococcal infections
Citation
Moloi, A. H., et al. 2016. Epidemiology, health systems and stakeholders in rheumatic heart disease in Africa : a systematic review protocol. BMJ Open, 6:e011266, doi:10.1136/
bmjopen-2016-011266