Developmental disabilities in Africa: A scientometric review.
African disability research is leaving the medical model and heading toward systems-of-care, but the world still overlooks it.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team scanned every paper they could find on developmental disabilities in Africa. They fed 1 720 articles into a computer program that groups similar work. The map showed 14 research clusters and a clear move toward studies about whole care systems.
No lab work or kids were involved. The study is a bird’s-eye view of what scientists have published since the 1970s.
What they found
Most early African papers looked at medical causes. Newer papers look at how schools, clinics, and families can work together. The field is still tiny on the world stage.
How this fits with other research
Fong et al. (2023) did the same kind of map for the Middle East. They also found a heavy focus on genes and a thin slice on everyday services. The two reviews echo each other: both regions need more applied studies.
Zakirova-Engstrand et al. (2024) counted only 11 autism studies across five Central Asian countries. Africa’s output is larger, but the pattern is the same—regions outside North America and Europe publish far less.
Xu et al. (2022) looked at immigrant families in high-income countries and listed language, cost, and paperwork as service barriers. The African mapping study does not list those barriers, yet the lack of systems-of-care research in Africa may create the same roadblocks.
Why it matters
If you write grants or train staff abroad, know this: African disability science is shifting from lab benches to real-life systems. Partner with local authors and fund studies on teacher training, parent coaching, and policy. You will help close the global data gap and give BCBAs on the continent evidence they can use Monday morning.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add one African systems-of-care paper to your next staff journal club list.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Developmental disabilities are disproportionately more investigated in higher-income countries. However, global prevalence of developmental disabilities indicate that a large proportion of individuals with disabilities reside in low- and middle-income nations. AIMS: The present work therefore aims to conduct a scientometric review to survey available literature on developmental disabilities in low- and middle-income countries belonging to the continent of Africa. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: A literature search was conducted on Scopus, where a total of 1720 relevant publications (and an accompanying 66 thousand references) were found, representing research conducted between 1950 to 2022. Then, document co-citation analysis was performed to chart significant co-citation relationships between relevant articles and their cited references. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: The generated network based on document co-citation analysis revealed a total of 14 distinct thematic research clusters and 12 significant documents that have been frequently cited in the literature on developmental disabilities in Africa. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The scientometric review revealed a trend of broadening research towards systems of care, away from a medical model of disease. It is projected that future research will continue to capitalise on inter-disciplinary strengths to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of developmental disability from all levels - individuals, families, to communities.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2023 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2022.104395