The burden of unlawful use of opioid and associated epidemiological characteristics in Africa: A scoping review.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

There is an ongoing global upsurge of opioid misuse, fatal overdose and other related disorders, significantly affecting the African continent, due to resource-limited settings and poor epidemiological surveillance systems. This scoping review maps scientific evidence on epidemiological data on unlawful opioid use to identify knowledge gaps and policy shortcomings.

Method

The databases (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Sciences) and references were searched guided by Population, Concept, and Context (PCC) and PRISMA-ScR. The extracted characteristics examined were author/year, African country, epidemiological distribution, age group (year), gender, study design and setting, common opioid/s abused, sources of drugs, reasons for misuse, summary outcomes and future engagemen

SUBMITTER: Onohuean H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11888143 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature