The global profile of individuals undergoing total knee replacement surgery through a PROGRESS-PLUS equity lens: A systematic review.

There is no data at all from Africa or other low-income settings, so nothing here describes those patients or how they recover. The search was limited to studies published from 2020 onwards, so relevant African work published earlier may have been missed. The studies measured and reported outcomes so differently that the authors could not combine them, so everything is a range across countries rather than a pooled estimate. Reporting quality was appraised by two research assistants who were trained for the task, each taking half the studies, and only studies reporting pre-surgery baseline information were eligible. Only demographic and social profiles before surgery were extracted; the review says nothing about how any surgical or rehabilitation approach performs.

The paper reports funding only: the NRF funded the research and this supported postgraduate bursaries and research assistance. No competing interest statement is given.

Do not take this as evidence that any rehabilitation approach works, or that recording patients' income and education improves recovery. The review describes who was studied and what was not reported; no treatments were compared, no outcomes pooled, and the suggestion to add socioeconomic indicators to assessment is the authors' proposal rather than something tested here.