Up to 50% of patients develop post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS) after an above knee deep vein thrombosis (DVT). The aim of the study was to determine the effect of graduated compression stockings in preventing PTS after DVT.

Pragmatic, UK multicentre randomised trial in adults with first above knee DVT. The standard of care arm is anticoagulation. The intervention arm will receive anticoagulation plus stockings (European class II, 23–32 mm Hg compression) worn for a median of 18 months. The primary endpoint is PTS using the Villalta score. Analysis of this will be through a time to event approach and cumulative incidence at median 6, 12 and 18 months. An ongoing process evaluation will examine factors contributing to adherence to stockings to understand if and how the behavioural interventions were effective.

UK research ethics committee approval (reference 19/LO/1585). Dissemination though the charity Thrombosis UK, the Imperial College London website, peer-reviewed publications and international conferences.

ISRCTN registration number 73041168.

Chiari 1 malformation (CM1) is a structural abnormality of the hindbrain characterised by the descent of the cerebellar tonsils through the foramen magnum. The management of patients with CM1 remains contentious since there are currently no UK or international guidelines for clinicians. We therefore propose a collaborative, prospective, multicentre study on the investigation, management and outcome of CM1 in the UK: the UK Chiari 1 Study (UKC1S). Our primary objective is to determine the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with a new diagnosis of CM1 managed either conservatively or surgically at 12 months of follow-up. We also aim to: (A) determine HRQoL 12 months following surgery; (B) measure complications 12 months following surgery; (C) determine the natural history of patients with CM1 treated conservatively without surgery; (D) determine the radiological correlates of presenting symptoms, signs and outcomes; and (E) determine the scope and variation within UK practice in referral patterns, patient pathways, investigations and surgical decisions.

The UKC1S will be a prospective, multicentre and observational study that will follow the British Neurosurgical Trainee Research Collaborative model of collaborative research. Patients will be recruited after attending their first neurosurgical outpatient clinic appointment. Follow-up data will be collected from all patients at 12 months from baseline regardless of whether they are treated surgically or not. A further 12-month postoperative follow-up timepoint will be added for patients treated with decompressive surgery. The study is expected to last three years.

The UKC1S received a favourable ethical opinion from the East Midlands Leicester South Research Ethics Committee (REC reference: 20/EM/0053; IRAS 269739) and the Health Research Authority. The results of the study will be published in peer-reviewed medical journals, presented at scientific conferences, shared with collaborating sites and shared with participant patients if they so wish.

To examine the association between the number of visits to the emergency department (ED) by children for night-time headaches and exposure to multifaceted factors, such as meteorological conditions and air pollution.

We conducted a clinical observational time-series analysis study.

We reviewed consecutive patients younger than 16 years of age at the primary ED centre in Kobe city, Japan, during the night shift (19:30–7:00 hours) between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2019.

In total, 265 191 children visited the ED; 822 presented with headache during the study period.

We investigated the effects of meteorological factors and air pollutants by multivariate analysis of Poisson regression estimates. A subanalysis included the relationship between the number of patients with night-time headaches and the above factors by sex. Furthermore, the effect of typhoon landing on patient visits for headache was also analysed. Headache was not classified because examinations were performed by general paediatricians (non-specialists).

The number of patients with night-time headaches displayed distinct seasonal changes, with peaks during the summer. Multivariate analysis of Poisson regression estimates revealed a significant positive relationship between the number of patients for headache and mean temperature. Subanalysis by sex indicated a positive relationship between the number of patients with headache and mean temperature in both sexes; however, it was significant only for females. No relationship was found between the number of patients with headache and air pollution. There was no change in the number of patients for night-time headaches 3 days before and after typhoon landing.

High temperature is the main factor for visiting ED for night-time headaches among children in Kobe city. Our results suggest that preventive measures against night-time headaches may be possible by reducing time spent outside during summer.

A worldwide lack of consensus exists on the optimal management of asymptomatic congenital pulmonary airway malformation (CPAM) even though the incidence is increasing. Either a surgical resection is performed or a wait-and-see policy is employed, depending on the treating physician. Management is largely based on expert opinion and scientific evidence is scarce. Wide variations in outcome measures are seen between studies making comparison difficult thus highlighting the lack of universal consensus in outcome measures as well. We aim to define a core outcome set which will include the most important core outcome parameters for paediatric patients with an asymptomatic CPAM.

This study will include a critical appraisal of the current literature followed by a three-stage Delphi process with two stakeholder groups. One surgical group including paediatric as well as thoracic surgeons, and a non-surgeon group including paediatric pulmonologists, intensive care and neonatal specialists. All participants will score outcome parameters according to their level of importance and the most important parameters will be determined by consensus.

Electronic informed consent will be obtained from all participants. Ethical approval is not required. After the core outcome set has been defined, we intend to design an international randomised controlled trial: the COllaborative Neonatal NEtwork for the first CPAM Trial, which will be aimed at determining the optimal management of patients with asymptomatic CPAM.

Clinical teaching visits (CTVs) are formative workplace-based assessments that involve a senior general practitioner (GP) observing a clinical practice session of a general practice registrar (specialist vocational GP trainee). These visits constitute a key part of Australian GP training. Despite being mandatory and resource-intensive, there is a paucity of evidence regarding the content and educational utility of CTVs. This study aims to establish the content and educational utility of CTVs across varying practice settings within Australia, as perceived by registrars and their assessors (‘CT visitors’). In addition, this study aims to establish registrar, CT visitor and practice factors associated with CTV content and perceived CTV utility ratings.

This study will collect data prospectively using online questionnaires completed soon after incident CTVs. Participants will be registrars and CT visitors of CTVs conducted from March 2020 to January 2021. The setting is three Regional Training Organisations across four Australian states and territories (encompassing 37% of Australian GP registrars).

Outcome factors will be a number of specified CTV content elements occurring during the CTV as well as participants’ perceptions of CTV utility, which will be analysed using univariate and multivariable regression.

Ethics approval has been granted by the University of Newcastle Human Research Ethics Committee, approval number H-2020-0037. Study findings are planned to be disseminated via conference presentation, peer-reviewed journals, educational practice translational workshops and the GP Synergy research subwebsite.

This study aims to investigate the effects of an optimal home-based respiratory care protocol in individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

This is a randomised, blinded controlled trial involving patients diagnosed with ALS, both sexes, age between 18 and 80 years. Patients will be randomly allocated into the conventional respiratory care (CRC) group and the optimised respiratory care home-based (ORC) group. Primary outcomes will be peak cough flow, the number of exacerbations and ALS Functional Rating Scale Revised. Secondary outcomes will include chest wall volumes, maximal respiratory pressures, sniff nasal inspiratory pressure, nasal expiratory pressure and forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in the 1st second (FEV₁) and FEV₁/FVC. The CRC group will receive educational information about respiratory care at the clinic. The ORC group will receive conventional care and home-based care. The clinical status of all individuals will be monitored weekly through telephone calls. A 6-month intervention is planned, the outcomes will be assessed every 3 months and 3 and 6 months follow-up after final evaluation. The primary and secondary results will be described as average or median for continuous variables and absolute and relative frequencies for qualitative variables. Treatment effects or differences between the outcomes (baseline, 3 months and 6 months) of the study groups will be analysed using an analysis of variance. The level of significance will be set as p≤0.05.

The research ethics committee approved the study. It is expected to evaluate respiratory function in patients with ALS in the short, medium and long terms with home-based care protocol applied. The disease’s rapid progression is a limitation for performing a long-term clinical study.

RBR-3z23ts; Pre-results.

To comprehensively map the existing evidence assessing the impact of travel-related control measures for containment of the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic.

Rapid evidence map.

MEDLINE, Embase and Web of Science, and COVID-19 specific databases offered by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the WHO.

We included studies in human populations susceptible to SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19, SARS-CoV-1/severe acute respiratory syndrome, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus/Middle East respiratory syndrome or influenza. Interventions of interest were travel-related control measures affecting travel across national or subnational borders. Outcomes of interest included infectious disease, screening, other health, economic and social outcomes. We considered all empirical studies that quantitatively evaluate impact available in Armenian, English, French, German, Italian and Russian based on the team’s language capacities.

We extracted data from included studies in a standardised manner and mapped them to a priori and (one) post hoc defined categories.

We included 122 studies assessing travel-related control measures. These studies were undertaken across the globe, most in the Western Pacific region (n=71). A large proportion of studies focused on COVID-19 (n=59), but a number of studies also examined SARS, MERS and influenza. We identified studies on border closures (n=3), entry/exit screening (n=31), travel-related quarantine (n=6), travel bans (n=8) and travel restrictions (n=25). Many addressed a bundle of travel-related control measures (n=49). Most studies assessed infectious disease (n=98) and/or screening-related (n=25) outcomes; we found only limited evidence on economic and social outcomes. Studies applied numerous methods, both inferential and descriptive in nature, ranging from simple observational methods to complex modelling techniques.

We identified a heterogeneous and complex evidence base on travel-related control measures. While this map is not sufficient to assess the effectiveness of different measures, it outlines aspects regarding interventions and outcomes, as well as study methodology and reporting that could inform future research and evidence synthesis.

This study was aimed to assess the magnitude and associated factors of unmet need for family planning among rural women in Ethiopia.

Cross-sectional study.

Ethiopia.

Reproductive age group women.

Unmet need for family planning.

This study drew data from Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey, which was conducted from 18 January to 27 June 2016. A total of 8327 rural reproductive-aged (15–49 years) women were included. A two-level multivariable logistic regression model was carried out to identify individual and community-level factors associated with unmet need for family planning. Adjusted OR (AOR) with a 95% CI was used to assess the strength of association between independent and dependent variables.

The overall unmet need for family planning among rural women was 24.08% (95% CI 23.17 to 25.01), of which 14.79% was for spacing and 9.29% for limiting. Number of children (AOR=1.15; 95% CI 1.07 to 1.24) and working status of women (AOR=1.18; 95% CI 1.02 to 1.37) were significantly associated with a higher odds of unmet need for family planning. However, women with primary education (AOR=0.87; 95% CI 0.74 to 0.94), women married at age 18 or later (AOR=0.82; 95% CI 0.70 to 0.96), women from households with high wealth index (AOR=0.77; 95% CI 0.64 to 0.94), women who deem distance to a health facility as not a big problem (AOR=0.85; 95% CI 0.73 to 0.99), women from communities with a high percentage of educated women (AOR=0.73; 95% CI 0.59 to 0.89) and women who live in communities with high media exposure (AOR=0.81, 95% CI 0.68 to 0.98) were significantly associated with a lower odds of unmet needs for family planning.

Unmet need for family planning among reproductive-aged women in rural Ethiopia was high. Number of children, working status of women, women’s education, age at first marriage, household wealth, distance to a health facility, community women’s education and community media exposure were significantly associated with unmet needs for family planning. Therefore, to reduce unmet need for family planning, public health policymakers should consider both individual and community-level factors when designing FP programmes and emphasis should be given to high-risk populations.

The aim was to use routine data available at a patient’s admission to the hospital to predict polypharmacy and drug–drug interactions (DDI) and to evaluate the prediction performance with regard to its usefulness to support the efficient management of benefits and risks of drug prescriptions.

Retrospective, longitudinal study.

We used data from a large multicentred pharmacovigilance project carried out in eight psychiatric hospitals in Hesse, Germany.

Inpatient episodes consecutively discharged between 1 October 2017 and 30 September 2018 (year 1) or 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2019 (year 2).

The proportion of rightly classified hospital episodes.

We used gradient boosting to predict respective outcomes. We tested the performance of our final models in unseen patients from another calendar year and separated the study sites used for training from the study sites used for performance testing.

A total of 53 909 episodes were included in the study. The models’ performance, as measured by the area under the receiver operating characteristic, was ‘excellent’ (0.83) and ‘acceptable’ (0.72) compared with common benchmarks for the prediction of polypharmacy and DDI, respectively. Both models were substantially better than a naive prediction based solely on basic diagnostic grouping.

This study has shown that polypharmacy and DDI can be predicted from routine data at patient admission. These predictions could support an efficient management of benefits and risks of hospital prescriptions, for instance by including pharmaceutical supervision early after admission for patients at risk before pharmacological treatment is established.

With the acute shortage of human resources and infrastructure, mobile phones can be a critical tool for accessing health services and strengthening health systems in Bangladesh. Yet, there is a scarcity of evidence on the use of mobile phones in this context for accessing health services. In this study, we sought to explore the current use of mobile phones for accessing maternal and child healthcare and its determinants among recently delivered women in urban slums of Bangladesh.

The data were collected through interviewing 800 recently delivered women from eight slums of Dhaka city of Bangladesh during May and June 2018. The study followed a cross-sectional design and a two-stage cluster random sampling procedure was followed. A pretested structured questionnaire was employed to collect information. Chi square tests were performed for descriptive analyses and a multilevel binary logistic regression model was executed to explore the determinants of mobile phone usage for accessing maternal and childcare among the participants.

Overall, 73.8% of study participants used mobile phones for accessing maternal and child healthcare. After adjusting for potential confounders, participants’ age, husband’s occupation, sex of household head, women’s ownership of mobile phones and household wealth status were found to be significantly associated with higher odds of using mobile phones to access maternal and child healthcare.

The study highlighted the possibility of implementing large-scale mobile health (mHealth) interventions in slum settlements for accessing maternal and child healthcare and is a sustainable mitigation strategy for the acute health worker crisis in Bangladesh. The findings of this study are particularly crucial for policymakers and practitioners while they revise the health policy to incorporate mHealth interventions as highlighted in the recently initiated Digital Health Strategy of Bangladesh.

The current diagnostic pathways for cognitive impairment rarely identify babies at risk before 2 years of age. Very early detection and timely targeted intervention has potential to improve outcomes for these children and support them to reach their full life potential. Early Moves aims to identify early biomarkers, including general movements (GMs), for babies at risk of cognitive impairment, allowing early intervention within critical developmental windows to enable these children to have the best possible start to life.

Early Moves is a double-masked prospective cohort study that will recruit 3000 term and preterm babies from a secondary care setting. Early Moves will determine the diagnostic value of abnormal GMs (at writhing and fidgety age) for mild, moderate and severe cognitive delay at 2 years measured by the Bayley-4. Parents will use the Baby Moves smartphone application to video their babies’ GMs. Trained GMs assessors will be masked to any risk factors and assessors of the primary outcome will be masked to the GMs result. Automated scoring of GMs will be developed through applying machine-based learning to the data and the predictive value for an abnormal GM will be investigated. Screening algorithms for identification of children at risk of cognitive impairment, using the GM assessment (GMA), and routinely collected social and environmental profile data will be developed to allow more accurate prediction of cognitive outcome at 2 years. A cost evaluation for GMA implementation in preparation for national implementation will be undertaken including exploring the relationship between cognitive status and healthcare utilisation, medical costs, health-related quality of life and caregiver burden.

Ethics approval has been granted by the Medical Research Ethics Committee of Joondalup Health Services and the Health Service Human Research Ethics Committee (1902) of Curtin University (HRE2019-0739).

ACTRN12619001422112.

The severity of cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) is assessed through neuroimaging findings, including hypertensive arteriopathy (HA)-SVD and cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA)-SVD. HA-SVD and CAA-SVD have been collectively estimated as total scores: the HA-SVD and CAA-SVD scores, respectively. Previous reports suggest that HA-SVD scores are associated with cognitive function; however, the relationship between CAA-SVD scores and cognitive function remains unclear. Therefore, we examined the association between CAA-SVD scores and cognitive function. Furthermore, we developed a modified CAA-SVD score considering cortical microinfarcts and posterior dominant white matter hyperintensities, which are imaging findings of CAA, and examined the association between these scores and cognitive function in the same patient group.

Prospective study.

Single centre study from a memory clinic.

Subjects were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or mild dementia in our memory clinic between February 2017 and July 2019 and underwent clinical dementia rating scale and brain MRI assessment. A total of 42 patients (aged 75.3±9.12 years) were registered prospectively.

We evaluated intellectual function, memory, frontal lobe function and constructional ability. Furthermore, the relationship between each score and cognitive function was examined.

The CAA-SVD score showed significant associations with cognitive function (R²=0.63, p=0.016), but the HA-SVD score did not (R²=0.41, p=0.35). The modified CAA-SVD score was also significantly associated with cognitive function (R²=0.65, p=0.008).

Cognitive function is associated with the CAA-SVD score, and more efficiently with the modified CAA-SVD score, in memory clinic patients. Although we have not validated the weighting of the modified CAA-SVD score, these scores can be a predictor of cognitive deterioration in patients with MCI and mild dementia.

Youth represent a population disparately impacted by the HIV epidemic. With most new HIV diagnoses occurring among adolescents and young adults, novel approaches to address this disparity are necessary. The objective of the current study was to describe the Youth to Telehealth and Text to Improve Engagement in Care (Y2TEC) intervention, which aims to fill this gap. The Y2TEC intervention (trial registration NCT03681145) offers an innovative approach to improve HIV treatment engagement among youth living with HIV by focusing on treatment barriers related to mental health and substance use. This allows for a holistic approach to providing culturally informed intervention strategies for this population.

The Y2TEC intervention was developed for youth with HIV in the large metropolitan area of the San Francisco Bay Area. The Y2TEC intervention was developed based on formative interdisciplinary research and is grounded in the information–motivation–behavioural skills model.

The intervention includes 12 sessions each lasting 20–30 minutes, which are delivered through videoconferencing and accompanying bidirectional text messaging. The intervention sessions are individualised, with session dosage in each major content area determined by participant’s level of acuity.

The Y2TEC intervention is well positioned to help decrease HIV-related disparities in youth living with HIV through its innovative use of video-counselling technologies and an integrated focus on HIV, mental health and substance use.

In the context of a viral outbreak and the stay-at-home measures, a significant increase in psychological distress, such as stress or fear behaviours, has previously been reported in adult and paediatric population. Children and adolescents seem to be particularly at risk of developing psychiatric disorders during and after the stay-at-home but evidences are lacking. The main objective of this article is to present the methodology of Coronavirus Confinement 2020 (CoCo20) Study, which aims to assess the impact of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) and stay-at-home on the development of psychiatric disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in children and adolescents.

We describe a longitudinal and multicentre study in the paediatric population during and after stay-at-home related to COVID-19 pandemic. Inclusions started on 30 March 2020 for 6 months. This study is proposed to all consecutive paediatric outpatients consulting during and after stay-at-home related to COVID-19 pandemic in medical–psychological centres and in a paediatric psychotrauma centre and/or calling the emergency COVID-19 hotline. We perform standardised and internationally validated psychiatric assessments (Diagnosis Infant and Preschool Assessment, Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia—Present and Lifetime Version) together with anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, PTSD, parenting stress and somatic symptoms scales during five visits (baseline, 1 week after baseline, 1 month after baseline, 1 week after the end of the containment and 1 month after the end of the containment) in patients and their families enrolled during the containment and during three visits in case of enrolment after the containment. The inclusion period will end in 30 November 2020.

The protocol has been approved by the Ethics Committee of Cote d’Azur University « CERNI » (number 2020-59). All patients and their legal caregivers provide a written informed consent on enrolment in the study. We will submit the results of the study to relevant journals and offer national and international presentations. This study will enable better characterisation of the impact of the stay-at-home (related to COVID-19 pandemic) on the mental health of children and adolescents.

NCT04498416.

Health systems across the world are facing challenges with shortages and maldistribution of skilled health professionals. Return-of-service (ROS) initiatives are government-funded strategies used to educate health professionals by contracting beneficiaries to undertake government work on a year-for-year basis after their qualification. It is envisaged that once they have served their contract, they will be attracted to serve in the same area or government establishment beyond the duration of their obligatory period. Little is known about the processes that led to the development and implementation of ROS policies. Furthermore, there is no systematic evaluation of the strategies that demonstrate their utility. This research aims to evaluate the ROS initiatives, explore their efficacy and sustainability in five Southern African countries.

This study will be conducted in South Africa, Eswatini, Lesotho, Botswana and Namibia in a phased approach through a multimethods approach of policy reviews, quantitative and qualitative research. First, a review will be conducted to explore current ROS schemes. Second, a quantitative retrospective cohort study of ROS scheme recipients for the period 2000–2010 will be undertaken. Information will be sourced from multiple provincial or national information systems and/or databases. Third, we will conduct semistructured group or individual interviews with senior health, education, ROS managing agency managers (where appropriate) and finance managers and/policy makers in each country to determine managers’ perceptions, challenges and the costs and benefits of these schemes. Fourth, we will interview or conduct group discussions with health professional regulatory bodies to assess their willingness to collaborate with ROS initiative funders.

Ethics approval for this study was obtained through the Human Research Ethics Committees of the University of New South Wales (HC200519), Australia; South Africa and Lesotho (065/2020); Eswatini (SHR302/2020); Namibia (SK001); and Botswana (HPDME 13/18/1). Relevant findings will be shared through presentations to participating governments, publications in peer-reviewed journals and presentations at relevant conferences.

A subgroup of adolescent and young adult childhood cancer survivors (AYACCS) are at increased risk of psychological distress. Despite this, AYACCS experience difficulties accessing psychological support. E-mental health (e-MH) may offer a solution to reduce this treatment gap. However, research examining e-MH for AYACCS has experienced difficulties with recruitment, retention and adherence. Such difficulties may relate to: (1) help-seeking behaviour and/or (2) e-MH acceptability. The overall study aims are to: (1) examine potential associations between health service use factors, informed by Andersen’s behavioural model of health services use, and help-seeking behaviour; (2) examine attitudes towards e-MH interventions; and (3) explore perceived need for mental health support; past experience of receiving mental health support; preferences for support; and barriers and facilitators to help-seeking.

An online and paper-based cross-sectional self-report survey (98 items) and embedded qualitative interview study across Sweden, with a target sample size of n=365. Participants are aged 16–39 years, diagnosed with cancer when 0–18 years and have completed successful cancer treatment. The survey examines sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, actual help-seeking behaviour, attitudes towards e-MH, stigma of mental illness, mental health literacy, social support and current symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Survey respondents with past and/or current experience of mental health difficulties are invited into the qualitative interview study to explore: (1) perceived need for mental health support; (2) past experience of receiving mental health support; (3) preferences for support; and (4) barriers and facilitators to help-seeking. Potential associations between health service use factors and help-seeking behaviour are examined using univariable and multivariable logistic regressions. Qualitative interviews are analysed using content analysis.

Ethical approval has been obtained from the Swedish Ethical Review Authority (Dnr: 2020-06271). Results will be disseminated in scientific publications and academic conference presentations.

ISRCTN70570236.

Individuals with schizophrenia are at a high risk of physical health comorbidities and premature mortality. Cardiovascular and metabolic causes are an important contributor. There are gaps in monitoring, documenting and managing these physical health comorbidities. Because of their condition, patients themselves may not be aware of these comorbidities and may not be able to follow a lifestyle that prevents and manages the complications. In many low-income and middle-income countries including Pakistan, the bulk of the burden of care for those struggling with schizophrenia falls on the families.

To determine the rate of self-reported physical health disorders and risk factors, like body mass index (BMI) and smoking, associated with cardiovascular and metabolic disorders in cases of schizophrenia compared with a group of mentally healthy controls.

A case-controlled, cross-sectional multicentre study of patients with schizophrenia in Pakistan.

Multiple data collection sites across the country for patients, that is, public and private psychiatric OPDs (out patient departments), specialised psychiatric care facilities, and psychiatric wards of teaching and district level hospitals. Healthy controls were enrolled from the community.

We report a total of 6838 participants’ data with (N 3411 (49.9%)) cases of schizophrenia compared with a group of healthy controls (N 3427 (50.1%)).

BMI (OR 0.98 (CI 0.97 to 0.99), p=0.0025), and the rate of smoking is higher in patients with schizophrenia than in controls. Problems with vision (OR 0.13 (0.08 to 0.2), joint pain (OR 0.18 (0.07 to 0.44)) and high cholesterol (OR 0.13 (0.05 to 0.35)) have higher reported prevalence in controls. The cases describe more physical health disorders in the category ‘other’ (OR 4.65 (3.01 to 7.18)). This captures residual disorders not listed in the questionnaire.

Participants with schizophrenia in comparison with controls report more disorders. The access in the ‘other’ category may be a reflection of undiagnosed disorders.

Fetal growth restriction, preterm birth, low birth weight and stillbirth are adverse birth outcomes that are prevalent in low-income and middle-income settings such as the Pacific Island region. It is widely accepted that the excess burden of adverse birth outcomes is attributable to socioeconomic and environmental factors that predispose families to excess risk. Our review seeks to determine the prevalence of adverse birth outcomes in the Pacific Island region and to identify the risk factors of adverse birth outcomes in the Pacific Island region.

This scoping review will follow the five-staged Arksey and O’Malley’s framework and consultation with Solomon Islands’ health stakeholders. A preliminary literature review was undertaken to understand the scope of the review. We will use Medical Subject Heading and keyword terms for adverse birth outcomes to search CINAHL, Medline, Scopus, ProQuest and Springer Link databases for articles published from 1 January 2000. The subsequent searches will be undertaken via Google Scholar and the internet browser to world health organisation and regional health organisations for published and unpublished reports on non-indexed studies. All articles retrieved will be managed with EndNote software. Eligible studies will be screened using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses flow chart for final selection. In the charting phase, we will extract the data into Excel spreadsheets. The results will be presented as numerical and thematic summaries that map risk factors and prevalence to the population and cultures of the Pacific Island region.

Formal ethical approval is not required as primary or administrative data will not be collected. However, we will seek ethics approval for the stakeholder consultation from the Research Office of Curtin University and the Solomon Islands. The findings of this study will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented in national and regional conferences and disseminated to stakeholders.

There will be no direct contact with human or patients in the case of the scoping review; therefore, no ethics will be required. However, we will seek ethical approval from the Research Ethics Office of Curtin University and the Health Research and Ethics Committee in the Solomon Islands for stakeholder consultation. Dissemination will be made through regional conferences and publication in peer-reviewed journals.