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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 accepted
Temesgen L. Abiso Temesgen L. Abiso 1,2*Amene Abebe Amene Abebe 1,2Eskinder W. Woticha Eskinder W. Woticha 2Mengistu M. Koyira Mengistu M. Koyira 2
  • 1 College of Health Sciences and Medicine, Wolaita Sodo University, Sodo, Ethiopia
  • 2 School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences and Medicine, Wolaita Sodo University, Sodo, Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region, Ethiopia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: 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 Abiso, Abebe, Woticha and Koyira. 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.

    * Correspondence: Temesgen L. Abiso, College of Health Sciences and Medicine, Wolaita Sodo University, Sodo, Ethiopia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.