ArticleAllergy, asthma, and clinical immunology : official journal of the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology2019
Availability and affordability of medicines and diagnostic tests recommended for management of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review.
Article in Allergy, asthma, and clinical immunology : official journal of the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 58 citations in OpenAlex.
- The availability, cost, and affordability of essential medicines for asthma and COPD in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review.The Lancet. Global health · 2022Pooled it
- Precision and accuracy of FEV1 measurements from the Vitalograph copd-6 mini-spirometer in a healthy Ugandan population.PloS one · 2021Trial
- Deep learning approach for probabilistic pulmonary function estimation from chest X-ray and peak expiratory flow rate.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- Childhood asthma in Uganda: experiences of healthcare providers and caregivers in diagnosis and management. A FRESH AIR qualitative study.NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2026Article
- The Establishment of a Registry of Respiratory Patients Attending Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: A Feasibility Study.Ethiopian journal of health sciences · 2025Article
- Bridging the diagnostic gap: diagnostic capacity and pediatric quality of care in LMICs.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- Acceptability of pulmonary rehabilitation in Malawi: a qualitative study.BMJ open respiratory research · 2025Article
- Replenish Revenue by Low-Cost Medicines, an Institution-Specific Action to Improve Access to High-Cost Medicines Used for Chronic Illness in Ethiopia: Narrative Review.Health science reports · 2025Article
- Management of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in Vietnam during the COVID-19 Period: Current Situation and Challenges.Tuberculosis and respiratory diseases · 2025Article
- The availability of drugs for stable COPD treatment in China: a cross-sectional survey.NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2025Article
- A systematic scoping review of medicine availability and affordability in Africa.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Respiratory Treatments: Results from the SABA CARBON International Study.Advances in therapy · 2023Article
- Over-prescription of short-acting βBMC primary care · 2023Article
- Implication of the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease 2023 report for resource-limited settings: tracing the G in the GOLD.The European respiratory journal · 2023Article
- Challenges in the diagnosis of asthma in children, what are the solutions? A scoping review of 3 countries in sub Saharan Africa.Respiratory research · 2022Article
- Asthma management in low and middle income countries: case for change.The European respiratory journal · 2022Review
- Cost-Accuracy Analysis of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Screening in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2022Article
- Article
- Retrospective cross-sectional study of asthma severity in adult patients at the Jimma Medical Center, Ethiopia.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Assessment of private health sector prescribing patterns and adherence to prescription format using World Health Organization core drug use indicators in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEarly accurate diagnosis and sustainable availability of affordable medicines and diagnostic tests is fundamental in optimal management of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We systematically reviewed original research articles about availability and affordability of medicines and diagnostic tests recommended for management of asthma and COPD in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
methodsWe searched PubMed, Scopus and African Journal Online for original research articles conducted in SSA between 2000 and March 2018 containing information about availability and affordability of any recommended medicine and diagnostic test for asthma and COPD.
resultsThe search yielded 9 eligible research articles. Availability of short-acting beta agonists (SABA), inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) and short acting anti-muscarinic agents (SAMA) ranged between 19.9-100%, 0-45.5% and 0-14.3% respectively. Combination of ICS-long acting beta agonists (LABA) were available in 0-14.3% of facilities surveyed. There was absence of inhaled long acting anti-muscarinic agents (LAMA) and LAMA/LABA combinations. Spirometry and peak expiratory flow devices were available in 24.4-29.4% and 6.7-53.6% respectively. Affordability of SABA and ICS varied greatly, ranging from < 2 to 107 days' wages while ICS-LABA combinations, SAMA and oral theophylline plus leukotriene receptor antagonists cost 6.4-17.1, 13.7 and 6.9 days' wages respectively.
conclusionAvailability and affordability of medicines and diagnostics recommended for the management of asthma and COPD is a big challenge in SSA. Research about this subject in this region is still limited. More robustly performed studies are required to further understand the magnitude of inequity in access to these medicines and diagnostic tests in SSA and also to formulate simple pragmatic solutions to address this challenge.
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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.