Guidance relevant to the reporting of health equity in observational research: a scoping review protocol

Abstract

IntroductionHealth inequities are defined as unfair and avoidable differences in health between groups within a population. Most health research is conducted through observational studies, which are able to offer real-world insights about etiology, healthcare policy/programme effectiveness and the impacts of socioeconomic factors. However, most published reports of observational studies do not address how their findings relate to health equity. Our team seeks to develop equity-relevant reporting guidance as an extension of the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) statement. This scoping review will inform the development of candidate items for the STROBE-Equity extension. We will operationalise equity-seeking populations using the PROGRESS-Plus framework of sociodemographic factors. As part of a parallel stream of the STROBE-Equity project, the relevance of candidate guideline items to Indigenous research will be led by Indigenous coinvestigators on the team.Methods and analysisWe will follow the Joanna Briggs Institute method for conducting scoping reviews. We will evaluate the extent to which the identified guidance supports or refutes our preliminary candidate items for reporting equity in observational studies. These candidate items were developed based on items from equity-reporting guidelines for randomised trials and systematic reviews, developed by members of this team. We will consult with our knowledge users, patients/public partners and Indigenous research steering committee to invite suggestions for relevant guidance documents and interpretation of findings. If the identified guidance suggests the need for additional candidate items, they will be developed through inductive thematic analysis.Ethics and disseminationWe will follow a principled approach that promotes ethical codevelopment with our community partners, based on principles of cultural safety, authentic partnerships, addressing colonial structures in knowledge production and the shared ownership, interpretation, and dissemination of research. All products of this research will be published as open access.

Diagnostic test accuracy of screening tools for post-traumatic stress disorder among refugees and asylum seekers: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Reporting guidelines specific to mental health screening tools would help researchers conducting future validation studies to report on the information needed for appraisal and synthesis. Ongoing initiatives to develop an equity extension of the widely used Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) reporting guideline may help in this regard ( Rizvi et al., 2022 ).…”

Improving social justice in observational studies: protocol for the development of a global and Indigenous STROBE-equity reporting guideline

“…We will review the candidate items supported from scoping review and the items found to be poorly reported in the methods study. Study design details regarding the methods studies will be published on open access platforms or published in peer review journals when possible [ 64 – 66 ]. We will analyze focus groups thematically and use themes to generate additional candidate items.…”

Mapping health service coverage inequalities in Africa: a scoping review protocol

“…The search terms will be based on previous works to reflect three concepts: (1) inequality, (2) health service coverage and (3) African regions (online supplemental appendix 3). For inequality, we will adapt a validated search filter,25 by including adding other terms that are suitable for the African context (eg, rural and religion) 26–28. For service coverage, we will use terms related to UHC that were previously identified with an exploratory search in Google, Google Scholar and Abstract reviews 29.…”

“…For inequality, we will adapt a validated search filter, 25 by including adding other terms that are suitable for the African context (eg, rural and religion). [26][27][28] For service coverage, we will use terms related to UHC that were previously identified with an exploratory search in Google, Google Scholar and Abstract reviews. 29 For African geographic regions, we will adapt a geographic African filter validated by the South African Cochrane Centre, 30 by correcting the name 'Mayotte' and including alternative missing African country names (eg, 'Ruanda', 'Comoros' and 'Cabo Verde').…”