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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Trop. Dis.
Sec. Neglected Tropical Diseases
Volume 5 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/fitd.2024.1483407
Stigma related to podoconiosis in Ethiopia: A systematic review
Provisionally acceptedBackground: Podoconiosis, One of the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) affects barefoot people in impoverished regions and contributes to poverty by having negative impacts on economic output, education, and disability. Podoconiosis has enormous social, psychological and economic implications for affected individuals. Social stigmatization of people with the disease is widespread, and patients are restricted from schools, local meetings, mosques and churches and not allowed to marry into unaffected families. Therefore, this study aimed to systematically review the stigma related to podoconiosis in Ethiopia.The Preferred Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA-2020) guidelines were followed. PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar and Google databases were searched. Articles published in the English language from inception to 2023 were included. Data were extracted by a pre-prepared Excel sheet, and a narrative synthesis of the findings was done. This review was registered in the PROSPERO International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews with registration number CRD42024510091.Results: A total of 19 studies were included in this systematic review. This systematic review identified different types of stigmas reported from individuals with podoconiosis. The types of stigmas identified were enacted, felt and internalized stigma and social stigmas, including exclusion from different social occurrences such as idir, meetings, funerals, and churches/mosques. Stigma also prevented patients with podoconiosis from visiting health institutions for the treatment of the disease and using health services for other cases.Stigma among podoconiosis patients is widely distributed in Ethiopia. Different types of stigmas were identified among the patients. Extensive work needs to be done to prevent the disease, and stigma. Strengthening works on community awareness about the disease that it does not transmit from affected individuals to others
Keywords: stigma, Discrimination, Neglected tropical disease, Podoconiosis, Ethiopia
Received: 19 Aug 2024; Accepted: 06 Nov 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 . This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
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