Abstract summary 

To summarise the available evidence on the prevalence of psychological distress among patients with TB in sub-Saharan Africa, and suggest recommendations for future clinical practice. We searched PubMed/Medline, SCOPUS and EMBASE databases for relevant studies. We further searched the reference lists of included studies to include other relevant studies. Cochran´s Q-statistic and the ² test were used to compute the heterogeneity. The presence of publication bias was assessed by visual inspection of symmetry and Egger´s test. The pooled prevalence estimate of psychological distress among patients with TB in sub-Saharan African countries was 42.3% (95% CI 35.3-49.7). The pooled prevalence of psychological distress was 61.1% in Cameroon, 49.4% in Angola, 47.7% in Ethiopia, 34.0% in Nigeria and 29.3% in South Africa. The pooled prevalence estimate of psychological distress among patients with TB ranged from 40.1% to 43.7% in a leave-one-out-sensitivity analysis. Furthermore, the prevalence of psychological distress was higher in females when compared to males. The prevalence of psychological distress among TB patients was high. Therefore, TB programmes should integrate psychiatry services to screen and manage psychologically distressed patients.

Authors & Co-authors:  Duko B B Dana L M LM Ayano G G

Study Outcome 

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