The impact of COVID-19 on speech-language and hearing professions in low- and middle-income countries: Challenges and opportunities explored.
Katijah Khoza-Shangase, Nomfundo Moroe, Joanne Neille and 1 others
PMID 36226974WHAT IT FOUND
Speech-language and hearing work in low- and middle-income countries was disrupted by masks, poor connectivity, telepractice gaps, workload and policy barriers.
The special issue described challenges and proposed hybrid services, not evidence that these methods improve patient outcomes.
Key findings
01Practice challenges centred on telepractice knowledge and skills, access and infrastructure, high costs, workload, and poor or missing policies.
02Masks and shields were reported to obscure facial expressions, reduce visual cues, affect sound transmission and increase listening effort.
03Teaching challenges included limited student support, gaps in skills and knowledge, educators' limited emergency remote teaching skills, and increased workload.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
It only reviewed papers accepted into a special issue, so it may not show all COVID-19 impacts on speech-language and hearing work. It did not study patients directly, so it cannot show whether any service model improved outcomes. South African papers were most represented, so findings may not match other low- and middle-income countries. The authors were guest editors of the special issue they reviewed.
Declared interests
No funding or conflict-of-interest declaration is given; the authors were guest editors of the special issue and reviewed papers accepted into it.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the proposed telepractice, hybrid models or patient-site facilitator roles as proven to improve speech, language, swallowing, hearing or balance outcomes. This article reports themes from papers in a special issue, not a trial of those models.