Low Vision Services in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of 11 Studies

Eleven studies from six Sub-Saharan African countries systematically review the availability, access, and outcomes of low vision services. The dataset, authored by Kwadwo Owusu Akuffo and updated in June 2026, synthesizes findings from a literature search across five databases following PRISMA guidelines. It is a small supplementary file (11.4 KB) released under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

Use Cases

• Mapping the availability of optical versus non-optical aids across Sub-Saharan Africa based on the review findings.
• Analyzing reported barriers to low vision service delivery, such as infrastructure and cost, mentioned in the description.
• Assessing functional outcomes, like improvements in distance visual acuity, following low vision interventions.
• Comparing low vision service coverage between countries, with Ghana noted as having the most comprehensive coverage.

Strengths

• Systematic review methodology following PRISMA guidelines and using Joanna Briggs Institute checklists for quality assessment.
• Synthesizes data from 11 studies across six countries, providing a regional overview.
• Released under a permissive CC-BY-4.0 license for reuse.

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are unknown, limiting suitability assessment.
• The dataset is very small (11.4 KB), indicating it contains summary or extracted data, not raw study data.
• Data may reflect geographic and publication bias inherent to the systematic review's inclusion criteria.

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

Data extracted and synthesized from a systematic literature review across PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, African Journals Online, and Google Scholar.

Time Range

Literature search from database inception through June 2025.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-03 06:00:57.

Geography

Sub-Saharan Africa, with studies from six specific countries.