National and regional prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Lauren C Ng, Anne Stevenson, Sreeja S Kalapurakkel, Charlotte Hanlon, Soraya Seedat, Boniface Harerimana, Bonginkosi Chiliza and Karestan C Koenen

PLOS Medicine, 2020, vol. 17, issue 5, 1-30

Abstract: Background: People living in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are disproportionately exposed to trauma and may be at increased risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, a dearth of population-level representative data from SSA is a barrier to assessing PTSD. This manuscript sought to calculate pooled PTSD prevalence estimates from nationally and regionally representative surveys in SSA. Methods and findings: The search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, and PTSDpubs and was last run between October 18, 2019, and November 11, 2019. We included studies that were published in peer-reviewed journals; used probabilistic sampling methods and systematic PTSD assessments; and included ≥ 450 participants who were current residents of an SSA country, at least 50% of whom were aged between 15 and 65 years. The primary outcomes were point prevalence estimates of PTSD across all studies, and then within subgroups. The protocol was registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) (registration number CRD42016029441). Out of 2,825 unique articles reviewed, 25 studies including a total of 58,887 eligible participants (54% female) in 10 out of the 48 countries in SSA were identified. Most studies enrolled any adult aged 18 years or older. However, some studies only enrolled specific age brackets or persons as young as 15 years old. Six studies were national surveys, and 19 were regional. Conclusions: In this study, PTSD symptoms consistent with a probable diagnosis were found to be common in SSA, especially in regions exposed to armed conflict. However, these studies only represent data from 10 of the 48 SSA countries, and only 6 studies provided national-level data. Given the enormous heterogeneity expected across the continent, and also within countries and regions, this review cannot speak to rates of PTSD in any regions not included in this review. Thus, substantial gaps in our knowledge of PTSD prevalence in SSA remain. More research on population-level prevalence is needed to determine the burden of trauma symptoms and PTSD in SSA and to identify acceptable and feasible approaches to address this burden given limited mental healthcare resources. Lauren Ng and co-workers investigate the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder in countries in sub-Saharan Africa.Why was this study done?: What did the researchers do and find?: What do these findings mean?:

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003090 (text/html)
https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id= ... 03090&type=printable (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pmed00:1003090

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1003090

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in PLOS Medicine from Public Library of Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by plosmedicine ().