Prevalence of multimorbidity in South Africa: a systematic review protocol

Rifqah A Roomaney; Brian van Wyk; Eunice Bolanle Turawa; Victoria Pillay-van Wyk

doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042889

Prevalence of multimorbidity in South Africa: a systematic review protocol

BMJ Open. 2020 Dec 13;10(12):e042889. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042889.

Authors

Rifqah A Roomaney^{1

2}, Brian van Wyk², Eunice Bolanle Turawa^{3

4}, Victoria Pillay-van Wyk³

Affiliations

¹ Burden of Disease Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa rifqah.roomaney@mrc.ac.za.
² School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa.
³ Burden of Disease Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa.
⁴ Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Community Health, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa.

Abstract

Introduction: Multimorbidity has increased globally over the past two decades, due to ageing populations and increased burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). In a country like South Africa, with a growing burden of NCDs and a high prevalence of HIV, information on multimorbidity can improve planning for healthcare delivery and utilisation, and reduce costs in the context of constrained health resources. This review aims to synthesise prevalence studies on multimorbidity, and identify dominant clusters and trends of multimorbidity in South Africa.

Methods and analysis: We will search electronic bibliographic databases (PubMed, Scopus, JSTOR, POPLINE, PsycINFO, ScienceDirect, Web of Science and CINAHL), and the reference lists of included articles. Two researchers will independently screen title and abstracts, and then full text to identify studies published before and in 2020 that report on prevalence of multimorbidity in South Africa. Risk of bias assessments will be done for each study. Information on the prevalence of multimorbidity and disease clusters will be extracted from each study. Where possible, prevalence of specific clusters of multimorbidity will be pooled using a random effects meta-analysis to account for variability between studies. The I² statistic will be used to establish the extent of heterogeneity due to variation in prevalence estimates rather than due to chance. The systematic review will be reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses.

Ethics and dissemination: Only published journal articles will be included in the systematic review. This review received ethics approval as part of a larger project by the University of the Western Cape Biomedical Science Research Ethics Committee (BM20/5/8). The findings from this research will be used to estimate the prevalence of multimorbidity in South Africa and will contribute to the design of future research projects. The findings will be disseminated in a peer-reviewed journal article.

Prospero registration number: CRD42020196895.

Keywords: epidemiology; health policy; primary care; public health.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Databases, Bibliographic
Humans
Meta-Analysis as Topic
Multimorbidity*
Prevalence
Research Design
Research Report*
Review Literature as Topic
South Africa / epidemiology
Systematic Reviews as Topic