Systematic Review on Socioeconomic and Environmental Factors of Leptospirosis

Abstract

Background: Leptospirosis is a Global emerging zoonotic tropical bacterial disease of the genus Leptospira, with high morbidity and mortality, especially in resource-limited communities. This study is a systematic review on the incidence of socioeconomic and environmental factors of human leptospirosis. Methods: The research involved published articles from PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar electronic databases for nine years. It also encompasses all cases analysed for the risk factors under study reported as numerical percentage incidences. The key terms searched in the database include "leptospirosis, Leptospira, human, patients, socioeconomic, environmental, risk factors, incidence, and prevalence." The search terms from the categories were linked with "OR" and those between categories with "AND." Retrieved articles were saved as comma-separated values (CVS) files and sorted out using the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the study, and then presented in PRISMA plot.Results: PubMed search revealed 133 that reduced to 14 after eligibility screening. Scopus produced 338, of which 17 met all the inclusion criteria. Finally, ten publications were qualified for further analysis. Descriptive statistics was used to analysed the association of means of the various factors associated with leptospirosis. Association with rodents had the highest mean incidence of 52.6% among the environmental factors, whereas farming activity among the socioeconomic factors had the highest mean incidence (44.3%). Conclusion: The authority concerned should improve efforts toward health education to farmers regarding personal safety and protective equipment. They should also encourage communities to improve environmental sanitation practices to minimize rodent populations.