Beliefs and attitudes about tuberculosis causation and treatment in Africa: A systematic review

Abstract

Tuberculosis continues to affect a third of the world’s population annually. Globally, Africa constitutes more than 25% of tuberculosis-related deaths. The high incidence of HIV/AIDS in Africa is associated with the severe tuberculosis fatality figures. The aim of this study was to systematically review literature with methodological rigour on people’s beliefs and attitudes regarding tuberculosis causation and treatment in Africa. Ethical approval was obtained from the Biomedical Research Ethics Committee at the University of the Western Cape (Reference: BM19/5/1). A systematic search was conducted from the months of June 2019 to September 2019 and March 2020 to April 2020 as part of the initial data collection phase and the verification process, respectively. Index keywords were divided into two phases to identify literature on both the beliefs and attitudes (Phase 1: N = 5; Phase 2: N = 19, respectively) on the topic.