Study Reveals Low Adherence to Antimicrobial Treatment Guidelines in Sub-Saharan Africa

I am happy to share a new study that i took part of it: The background for this study is that healthcare providers are expected to follow specific treatment guidelines to ensure patients receive the right diagnosis and treatment. This is particularly important when prescribing antimicrobials (like antibiotics) to prevent antimicrobial resistance – a big problem in sub-Saharan Africa. A recent study reviewed how well healthcare providers in this region are following these guidelines. In this project we have used a comprehensive method (JBI methodology) to review data from various medical databases. Then we looked at numerous studies without any restrictions on language or when they were published. Advanced statistical methods were used to analyze the data, ensuring the results were reliable and unbiased. So overall, the paper has included 22 studies involving 17,017 participants across 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. It was found that only 45% of the time healthcare providers followed the recommended guidelines for prescribing antimicrobials. The most common illnesses treated were respiratory and gastrointestinal infections. Surprisingly, out of all the prescriptions analyzed, only a small fraction of healthcare providers actually referred to the standard treatment guidelines. As a conclusion: The adherence to these vital guidelines is disappointingly low in sub-Saharan Africa. To combat this, healthcare systems need to improve access to these guidelines, possibly through mobile apps and other innovative methods. Training and empowering healthcare providers to make decisions based on the best available evidence and patient preferences is crucial. This will not only improve patient care but also help in the appropriate use of antimicrobials. The full study is available under: https://joppp.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40545-023-00634-0