Publications on Palliative Care Development Can Be Used as an Indicator of Palliative Care Development in Africa

Abstract Background: Palliative care (PC) research in Africa has been proposed as a fifth dimension of the World Health Organization PC Public Health Strategy. We conducted a scoping review of published articles (2005–2016) on palliative care development (PCD) in African countries. Forty-seven articles were found across 26 countries. Objective: To study whether the number of published articles on PCD in countries in Africa can be used as an indicator of PCD. Design: This is a secondary analysis of a completed scoping review. Measurements: Spearman correlations were applied to the number of published articles (“published articles”) and the number of published articles with a coauthor from a high-income country (HIC) (“HIC published articles”) with level of PCD using Lynch et al's updated world map (PC World Map) as a proxy. A subanalysis was undertaken for Anglophone versus non-Anglophone countries. Results: There were positive Spearman correlations ( r ) between the PC World Map's levels and published articles ( r  = 0.73; p  < 0.001), and with HIC published articles ( r  = 0.68; p  < 0.001). For Anglophone countries, the r was statistically significant ( p  < 0.001) at 0.69 and 0.70, versus 0.58 and 0.45 for non-Anglophone countries for published articles and HIC published articles, respectively. Kruskal–Wallis test showed a statistically significant difference between Anglophone and non-Anglophone countries for both published articles and HIC published articles ( p  < 0.01). Conclusion: Published articles and HIC published articles on PCD in Africa had strong positive r' s with the PC World Map. These measures may be considered as two indicators of PCD for countries in Africa, particularly for Anglophone countries.