Occupational Health Hazards Among Traffic Police in South Asian Countries: Protocol for a Scoping Review (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND Occupational health hazards and injuries are an alarming concern among the traffic police. Occupational injuries affect the physical, social and psychosocial well-being of police officers, which has various public health implications. The evaluation of occupational health and safety policies and regulations for the traffic police relies on their occupational exposure and health hazard statistics and assessments. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this paper is to propose a protocol for scoping review that will systematically explore, analyze and describe relevant findings from all studies conducted on occupational exposure and associated health hazards among traffic police in South Asia. METHODS The scoping review will include studies that assessed occupational exposure prevalence, types, knowledge, predisposing factors, and prevention strategies. Databases like PubMed, Springer Link, EBSCOhost, the Cochrane library, and Google Scholar will be utilized to obtain both published and unpublished works in the English language. Relevant grey literature, including government and international organization reports, will be examined. After removing duplicates and screening titles and abstracts, full-text analysis will begin. Arksey and O'Malley's methodology framework for scoping reviews will be followed. According to PRISMA-ScR, the scoping review will be reported. At least two qualified reviewers will screen. The extracted data will then be tabulated and accompanied by an explanation to facilitate comprehension. We'll extract relevant article results using NVivo V.10 and thematic content analysis. We'll evaluate the included articles using the mixed methods appraisal tool (MMAT), version 2018. RESULTS The scoping review will provide insight into how occupational health hazards affect traffic police physically and psychologically in South Asia. The theoretical conceptualization of different aspects of occupational health of traffic police will emphasize future studies in this region which will inform policymakers to revise their occupational health & safety policies and principles. It will have implications on taking necessary preventive measures in the future to reduce occupational injuries and fatalities resulting from different types of occupational hazards. CONCLUSIONS This scoping review will describe the overview of occupational hazards among South Asian traffic police and will provide insights for policymakers to implement changes and adaptation to new strategies.