Abstract
Background: Health intervention trials constitute important research efforts to find
appropriate solutions to health issues affecting different populations. In many cases,
it involves high-risk groups such as the trans-communities. This scoping review aims
to review the existing health intervention trials involving transgender, transabled and
transracial persons in Africa.
Methods: This scoping review adopted the research design by Arskey and O’Malley.
Using the Population–Concept–Context framework, a robust systematic search of
four research databases, including APA PsycINFO, SCOPUS, CINAHL Complete
and PubMed, was conducted to retrieve literature relevant to the review’s question.
Duplicate copies in the retrieved literature were removed using the Rayyan
web-based application. The residual literature was screened for relevance based on
the review’s inclusion and exclusion criteria, and only those eligible articles were
included in this review. From the included literature, data were charted, collated,
summarized and presented as results.
Results: The scoping review included and reviewed only four articles, which
reported studies involving transgender persons. No peer-reviewed original research
article on transabled and transracial persons in Africa was found eligible for inclusion
in this review. All the reviewed articles focused on at-risk, healthy and human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-uninfected adult participants ranging between the
ages of 18 and 65 years. The domains investigated in those articles were on sexual
health, HIV preventive drugs and vaccine trials. The reviewed findings showed
the use of HIV-inhibiting medications and HIV screening or testing as vital preventive
interventions among transgender persons in Africa. The available research
evidence shows sexuality reductionism about trans behaviour by neglecting other
health domains.
Conclusion: Health trial research on transracial, transgender and transabled persons
is a largely underexplored research domain in Africa. More health intervention trials,
beyond the domain of sexual health, are required to improve the health and wellbeing
of this highly marginalized population group in Africa.
KEYWORDS
Africa, health trial, interventions, scoping review, trans persons, transabled, transgender, transracial