SynthesisBulletin of the World Health Organization2015
Emergency care in 59 low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review.
Synthesis in Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 192 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
192 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 319 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mortality and its determinants among patients attending in emergency departments.BMC emergency medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Hospital disaster preparedness in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review of English literature.BMC emergency medicine · 2023Pooled it
- Non-hospital healthcare center's preparedness assessment toolbar for providing basic emergency care: a sequential exploratory mixed-method study.BMC health services research · 2023Pooled it
- Acceptability and uptake of HIV self-testing in emergency care settings: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine · 2022Pooled it
- The effects of mobile health on emergency care in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review and narrative synthesis.Journal of global health · 2021Pooled it
- A systematic review of emergency department based HIV testing and linkage to care initiatives in low resource settings.PloS one · 2017Pooled it
- Burden of emergency conditions and emergency care usage: new estimates from 40 countries.Emergency medicine journal : EMJ · 2016Pooled it
- Trial
- Trial
- Emergency triage in coastal Kenya: a survey of public Emergency Departments.African journal of emergency medicine : Revue africaine de la medecine d'urgence · 2026Article
- In-hospital cardiac arrest in a resource-limited emergency department in Somalia: Outcomes and priorities for resuscitation system development.Resuscitation plus · 2026Article
- Eligibility and Acceptability of Same-Day HIV Preexposure Prophylaxis Initiation During Emergency Care Encounters in Nairobi, Kenya: A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) · 2026Article
- Emergency and disaster preparedness in the zonal hospitals in the Somali Regional State, Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study.Research in health services & regions · 2026Article
- Article
- Implementing early warning systems for sepsis recognition in African healthcare settings: an Angolan perspective.African journal of emergency medicine : Revue africaine de la medecine d'urgence · 2026Article
- Pay first, treat later: upfront payment requirements as a non-clinical barrier to timely emergency care in fragile and resource-constrained health systems.African journal of emergency medicine : Revue africaine de la medecine d'urgence · 2026Article
- Global academic productivity in emergency medicine and research output by countries of different income levels.Clinical and experimental emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Videoconferencing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Panic Disorder in an Emergency Room in Mexico: A Multiple Baseline Design.Journal of clinical psychology in medical settings · 2026Article
- Patterns of negative trauma laparotomy worldwide: a sub-analysis of a global dataset.European journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society · 2026Observational
- Quality improvement in emergency units in low resource settings: a qualitative assessment for understanding challenges and delivering solutions.BMJ open quality · 2026Article
132 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo conduct a systematic review of emergency care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
methodsWe searched PubMed, CINAHL and World Health Organization (WHO) databases for reports describing facility-based emergency care and obtained unpublished data from a network of clinicians and researchers. We screened articles for inclusion based on their titles and abstracts in English or French. We extracted data on patient outcomes and demographics as well as facility and provider characteristics. Analyses were restricted to reports published from 1990 onwards.
findingsWe identified 195 reports concerning 192 facilities in 59 countries. Most were academically-affiliated hospitals in urban areas. The median mortality within emergency departments was 1.8% (interquartile range, IQR: 0.2-5.1%). Mortality was relatively high in paediatric facilities (median: 4.8%; IQR: 2.3-8.4%) and in sub-Saharan Africa (median: 3.4%; IQR: 0.5-6.3%). The median number of patients was 30 000 per year (IQR: 10 296-60 000), most of whom were young (median age: 35 years; IQR: 6.9-41.0) and male (median: 55.7%; IQR: 50.0-59.2%). Most facilities were staffed either by physicians-in-training or by physicians whose level of training was unspecified. Very few of these providers had specialist training in emergency care.
conclusionAvailable data on emergency care in LMICs indicate high patient loads and mortality, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where a substantial proportion of all deaths may occur in emergency departments. The combination of high volume and the urgency of treatment make emergency care an important area of focus for interventions aimed at reducing mortality in these settings.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.