Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Feb 1;27(1):1-8.
doi: 10.29337/ijsp.184. eCollection 2023.

Availability and Use of Essential Opioid Analgesics in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Scoping Review Protocol

Jane Yao  1 , Ngo Valery Ngo  2 , Odette D Kibu  2   3 , Constantine Asahngwa  2 , Hilary M Jasmin  4 , Ronald M Gobina  2   5 , Denis A Foretia  2   6   7
Affiliations

Availability and Use of Essential Opioid Analgesics in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Scoping Review Protocol

Jane Yao et al. Int J Surg Protoc. .

Abstract

Introduction: The treatment of acute, peri-operative, and chronic pain by healthcare practitioners and health systems requires appropriate access to and availability of essential opioid medications. While opioids are often oversupplied and overprescribed in high-income countries, there are significant inequities as many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) experience severe shortages. In fact, while the richest 10% in the world reside in countries receiving almost 90% of all available opioids, 50% of the poorest in the world reside in countries receiving just 1% of all available opioids.Understanding the social, economic, cultural, and regulatory barriers to access essential opioid analgesics in LMICs is critical in delineating and prioritizing appropriate interventions. We aim to conduct a scoping review on the availability and usage of essential opioid analgesics in LMICs, specifically in sub-Saharan Africa, to identify barriers, themes, and knowledge gaps.

Materials and methods: We will utilize the framework for conducting scoping reviews by Arksey and O'Malley. We will perform the search for articles in 3 electronic databases (i.e., SCOPUS, PubMed, Embase) and relevant gray literature. Only articles in English will be included. There will be no restriction on the publication period. All articles will directly involve either the availability and/or the use of essential opioid analgesics. Studies will be restricted to focus on sub-Saharan Africa. We will use a tailored extraction frame to extract relevant information from published articles that meet our inclusion criteria. We will analyze the data using both descriptive statistics and thematic analysis on the main study questions.

Ethics and dissemination: Since we will not be collecting primary data, formal ethical approval is not required.Our study findings will be disseminated through abstracts, conference presentations, and peer-reviewed publications.

Highlights: 50 percent of the poorest in the world reside in countries receiving just 1 percent of all available opioidsThere is a paucity of data analyzing the inequitable distribution of essential opioid analgesics worldwideOur scoping review will identify barriers, themes, and knowledge gaps on the availability and use of essential opioids in SSAIt will identify areas for further research and potential policy initiatives.

Keywords: LMICs; Scoping Review Protocol; essential opioid analgesics; opioid availability; opioid use; sub-Saharan Africa.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no competing interests to declare.

Figures

PRISMA Flow Diagram for Our Proposed Scoping Review [23]
Figure 1
PRISMA Flow Diagram for Our Proposed Scoping Review [23].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Eshete MT, Baeumler PI, Siebeck M, Tesfaye M, Wonde D, Haileamlak A, Michael GG, Ayele Y, Irnich D. The views of patients, healthcare professionals and hospital officials on barriers to and facilitators of quality pain management in Ethiopian hospitals: A qualitative study. PLoS ONE. 2019; 14: e0213644. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213644 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jayawardana S, Forman R, Johnston-Webber C, Campbell A, Berterame S, de Joncheere C, Aitken M, Mossialos E. Global consumption of prescription opioid analgesics between 2009–2019: a country-level observational study. EClinical Medicine. 2021; 42: 101198. DOI: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101198 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Degenhardt L, Grebely J, Stone J, Hickman M, Vickerman P, Marshall BDL, Bruneau J, Altice FL, Henderson G, Rahimi-Movaghar A, Larney S. Global patterns of opioid use and dependence: harms to populations, interventions, and future action. The Lancet (British edition). 2019; 394: 1560–1579. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(19)32229-9 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Berterame S, Erthal J, Thomas J, Fellner S, Vosse B, Clare MBiostats P, Hao W, Johnson DT, Mohar A, Pavadia JLLB, Samak AKE, Sipp WLLM, Sumyai V, Suryawati S, Toufiq J, Yans R, Mattick RP. Use of and barriers to access to opioid analgesics: a worldwide, regional, and national study. The Lancet (British edition). 2016; 387: 1644–1656. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)00161-6 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Manjiani D, Paul DB, Kunnumpurath S, Kaye AD, Vadivelu N. Availability and utilization of opioids for pain management: global issues. Ochsner Journal. 2014; 14: 208–215. - PMC - PubMed