A qualitative review of COVID-19 experiences in low- and middle-income countries
Citation: Raymond CB, Ward PR. Community-level experiences, understandings, and responses to COVID-19 in low-and middle-income countries: a systematic review of qualitative and ethnographic studies. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2021;18(22):12063.
Language: Abstract available in EN. Full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: The authors reported no external funding.
What is this? In this systematic review, the authors searched for qualitative literature on community responses during the COVID-19 pandemic in low- and middle-income countries. They restricted their searches to articles published in English between December 2019 and August 2021. The authors included 26 studies from Bolivia (1), Burkina Faso (1), Ethiopia (1), Ghana (3), India (4), Indonesia (7), Nepal (1), Nigeria (3), Pakistan (2), Philippines (1), Sierra Leone (1), and Uganda (1).
What was found: Communities around the world reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic in diverse and complex ways. The spread of disease was facilitated by misinformation and fear of social rejection, which led to non-compliance with pandemic restrictions, resistance, and isolation.
Perceptions of COVID-19 were influenced by traditional, religious, and biomedical epistemologies that occasionally conflicted. Communities adapted to traditional and biomedical practices that demonstrated resilience and offered models to improve public health outcomes.
Implications: The authors concluded that research on local contexts and responses is imperative to develop suitable policies. To tackle the pandemic, public health interventions should consider local context and community engagement.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed their findings in the context of socioeconomic status, age, culture, and place of residence.
This summary was prepared by Joly Ghanawi, checked by Surya Ramachandran, and finalized by William Summerskill.