Despite the well-established benefits of regular physical activity, only a small percentage of African American (AA) women meet national physical activity guidelines. This population faces unique cultural, social and environmental determinants that contribute to low participation rates. In response, various interventions have been developed to promote physical activity. While individual studies and reviews have examined these interventions, the evidence remains fragmented and of inconsistent quality. An umbrella review, or a review of reviews, provides a comprehensive method for summarising this body of literature. This protocol outlines the methods for conducting an umbrella review of physical activity interventions targeting AA women living in the USA.

A comprehensive search will be conducted in the Web of Science Core Collection, Social Sciences Full Text, SportDiscus, CINAHL, PubMed, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Evidence Synthesis, grey literature and relevant reference lists. Eligible articles published in English through September 2025 will be screened independently by >2 reviewers. Data extraction, analysis and quality assessment will follow. The AMSTAR 2 (A Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews 2) and JBI recommendations for umbrella reviews will be used to assess methodological quality. The Corrected Covered Area will be used to characterise the overlap of primary studies across reviews.

This umbrella review synthesises published data and does not involve human subjects, so ethics approval is not required. We will follow established guidance and best practice for transparency and integrity in evidence synthesis. Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, community-partner briefs, open materials (eg, search strategies and data extraction templates) and in an Open Science Framework repository.

Perineal trauma is one of the most common complications of childbirth, impacting approximately 9 out of 10 women who undergo a vaginal delivery. Perineal trauma is a public health issue leading to increased maternal morbidity and decreased quality of life. Although race is being studied as a potential risk factor and predictor of perineal trauma, other contributing factors like racism and social determinants of health have not been adequately studied in the same context. We set out to synthesise the available peer-reviewed evidence evaluating the prognostic association between race and perineal trauma.

This systematic review and meta-analysis adheres to the PRISMA-P (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols) and PROGRESS (Prognosis Research Strategy) guidelines and is registered with PROSPERO. The review explores the association between racial status (non-Hispanic white vs non-white) and perineal birth trauma using the PECOTS (Population, Intervention/Exposure, Comparator, Outcome, Timing and Setting) framework. We will search PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science and Embase. Peer-reviewed observational studies will be included. Data extraction and screening will be done in duplicate. Analyses will use random-effects models in R, reporting both unadjusted and adjusted risk differences. Risk of bias will be assessed using ROBINS-I (Risk of Bias in Non-randomised Studies of Interventions). Heterogeneity and certainty of evidence will be evaluated using I² and GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation), respectively.

This is a systematic review based on previously published data, and therefore ethical approval is not required. The findings of this review will be disseminated through publication in a peer-reviewed journal and presented at academic conferences.

CRD42025590093.