Social determinants of health associated with the development of sepsis in adults: a scoping review protocol

Abstract

IntroductionSepsis, the life-threatening immune response to infection, affects millions of people annually. Understanding of the factors associated with the development of sepsis is crucial for improving population health and public health efforts; in particular, literature exploring the relationship between sepsis and social determinants of health is lacking. This review seeks to establish and amalgamate existing evidence of the relationships between sepsis and the following social determinants: frailty, registration with a family physician, mental illness, alcohol abuse, social support levels, smoking status, illicit drug use disorders, socioeconomic status, gender and race/ethnicity.Methods and analysisThis study will analyse qualitative and quantitative studies using standard processes. The selected social determinants of health and their potential link to adult sepsis will be analysed separately under distinct headings. Findings will be consolidated in a final discussion. PubMed and Medline will be searched for articles published between 1970 and 2020 using search strings combining ‘sepsis’ and other variations, such as ‘septicaemia’ with each social determinant of interest. ‘Sepsis’ and at least one social determinant of interest must be present in a study’s title for inclusion in the review; the results of the initial search will be filtered based on predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Evidence from this scoping review will provide information on the impact of social determinants of health on the risk of developing adult sepsis, which can inform clinicians of the various risk factors to consider when admitting patients.Ethics and disseminationApproval from a research ethics board is not needed for this amalgamation of information from studies for which the primary investigators have obtained their own, respective ethics board approval. Once completed, the review will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, and findings will be presented in local and national forums.

Social Determinants of Health Associated With the Development of Sepsis in Adults: A Scoping Review

“…The following data were extracted: study characteristics (year of publication and country of origin), study design, number of participants, results examined in each study, and a description of the key findings related to the effects of SDoH studied on the development of sepsis. Although risk of bias (RoB) assessments and quality assessments are not typically performed in scoping reviews (13), an analysis of the methodological quality of each study was performed using the appropriate Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) critical appraisal checklist (12). This was done to determine the limitations of included studies and inform discussions on how future studies should be conducted.…”

“…The study was a retrospective analysis of previously published literature, and therefore, approval from research ethics board was not needed. The protocol for this study was published in BMJ Open (12).…”