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Article History

Received: 18 November 2025

Accepted: 31 August 2026

First Online: 8 September 2026

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate: The research protocol was approved by the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee (reference number 336/2024) before conducting the research. Ethical clearance was also sought and granted by the Medical Research Council of Zimbabwe (reference number MRCZ/B/2753). Authorization to use the data was granted by the private healthcare group management. Anonymized secondary data was used upon signing a confidentiality form by the principal researcher. There was no contact with participants, and no individual consent was obtained from the participants as it was impracticable. The research was conducted in accordance with the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki. The need for informed consent was waived by the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee and the Medical Research Council of Zimbabwe as this was a retrospective study.

Consent for publication: Not applicable.

Competing interests: AP and PR declared that they have no competing interests. TM declared that he worked for the private health group where the study was conducted, but did not interfere with data collection, analysis, or interpretation.