Access to musculoskeletal healthcare services in Sub-Saharan Africa is inadequate. As osteoarthritis is the most prevalent chronic osteoarticular disease globally, it’s essential to understand its social and economic impact, as well as the determinants of inequities in access to healthcare services in Sub-Saharan Africa. The absence of systematised knowledge on this topic makes this review pertinent. However, due to data scarcity, assessing this burden is challenging. The objective of this scoping review is to map and summarise the available literature up to 2025 on the socioeconomic burden and health inequity determinants among the Sub-Saharan African population with osteoarthritis.

A predefined search strategy will be applied to MEDLINE (via PubMed), Embase, African Journals Online and African Index Medicus to incorporate articles relevant to adults diagnosed with osteoarthritis who are residents of sub-Saharan Africa. We will also include grey literature sources such as Google Scholar, Research Square, manuals, books, medical society websites, secondary databases, theses and dissertation repositories and conference proceedings. Study selection will be conducted in two stages by a pair of reviewers who will independently screen titles and abstracts according to the eligibility criteria, followed by a full-text review of the selected studies. The search period was from October 2025 to January 2026. Data extraction will be performed using a standardised charting form developed by the review team.

This scoping review maps evidence on OA-related socioeconomic impacts and healthcare inequities in Sub-Saharan Africa. As a secondary data analysis, ethical approval is not required. Findings will be disseminated via peer-reviewed journals and academic conferences to clinicians and policymakers.