Research, Policy, and Practice Regarding Rehabilitation of Children with Developmental Disorder in Africa: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Abstract Background: Developmental disorders are topping the list of the Global burden of disease. While developed countries have been able to have a level of control over it, low-income and middle-income countries are yet to put the necessary measures towards curbing these disorders. Comparing African countries against other countries, some factors are key which if thoroughly evaluated and have actions taken on them. Methods: This scoping review was conducted to identify literature relating to research, policies, and practice regarding the rehabilitation of children with developmental disorders. A systematic search was carried out between June 2023 and August 2023 on PEDro, PubMed, African Journal Online, Cochrane Library and Directory of Open Access Journals for identification of eligible literature. Results: The search yielded 982 articles out of which 19 met the inclusion criteria. This shows that not so much work has been done regarding developmental disorders discussing policies or rehabilitation practice in Africa. The result was screened using Rayyan. Results from databases which cannot be exported in a format compatible with Rayyan were manually screened. 47% of the literature was from the Western African Region and Cerebral Palsy topped the list at 42%. No article was found on the policies regarding rehabilitation in children with developmental disorders in Africa. Diverse rehabilitation practices have been adopted and/or experimented on in Africa with none widely accepted. Conclusions: Seeing that there is yet to be structured evidence and information on developmental disorders in the African context, research remains the way forward. More energy should be channelled by researchers towards the issue of developmental disorders in Africa. Enough and quality evidence translates to better policies which when properly implemented, brings forth better rehabilitation practice in the area of developmental disorders in Africa and globally too.