Molecular autism research in Africa: a scoping review comparing publication outputs to Brazil, India, the UK, and the USA.

Abstract

The increased awareness of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is accompanied by burgeoning ASD research, and concerted research efforts are trying to elucidate the molecular ASD aetiology. However, much of this research is concentrated in the Global North, with recent reviews of research in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) highlighting the significant shortage of ASD publications from this region. The most limited focus area was molecular research with only two molecular studies ever published from SSA, both being from South Africa (SA). We examine the molecular ASD research publications from 2016 to 2021 from all African countries, with a special focus on SA. The SSA publications are compared to Brazil and India, two non-African, low-to-middle-income countries (LMICs), and to the UK and USA, two high-income countries (HICs). There were 228 publications across all regions of interest; only three publications were from SA. Brazil (n=29) and India (n=27) had almost 10 times more publications than SA. The HICs had more publications than the LMICs, with the UK (n=62) and the USA (n=74) having approximately 20 to 25 times more publications than SA, respectively. Given that SA has substantial research capacity as demonstrated by its recent research on SARS-CoV-2, we explore potential reasons for this deficit in molecular ASD publications from SA. We compare mental health research outputs, GDP per capita, research and development expenditure, and the number of psychiatrists and child psychiatrists per 100,000 people across all regions. The UK and the USA had significantly higher numbers for all these indicators, consistent with their higher publication output. Among the LMICs, SA can potentially produce more molecular ASD research, however, there are numerous barriers that need to be addressed to facilitate increased research capacity. These include cultural stigmas, challenges in accessing mental healthcare, shortages of specialists in the public sector, and the unreliability of ASD diagnostic tools across the 11 official SA languages. The unique genetic architecture of African populations presents an untapped reservoir for finding novel genetic loci associated with ASD. Therefore, addressing the disparity in molecular ASD research between the Global North and SSA is integral to global advancements in ASD research.