Sickle cell disease (SCD) poses a significant global health burden, particularly affecting individuals in developing countries with constrained healthcare resources. While research on self-management in the context of SCD is emerging, it has predominantly focused on primary studies, and there is a notable dearth of evidence synthesis on SCD self-management in developing countries. This scoping review aims to identify and map self-management needs of individuals living with SCD, the strategies they employed to meet those needs, and the support systems available to them.

The review will be conducted following the Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) 29 framework to comprehensively examine the landscape of SCD self-management research. Searches will be performed in PubMed, Scopus, Embase and Dimensions AI, with additional searches in other databases and grey literature. Indexed literature published in English from inception to January 2024 will be included. Reference list from included studies will also be searched manually. Two teams will be constituted to independently screen titles, abstracts and full text against the eligible criteria. Data will be extracted from included studies onto a customised data extraction form.

Ethical approval is not required for this review due to the fact that it synthesises information from available publications. The findings will be disseminated through publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Also, the findings will possibly be presented at relevant international and national conferences. This protocol has already been registered with the Open Science Framework. The study characteristics such as design and setting will be descriptively analysed and presented as graphs, tables and figures. Thematic analysis will also be conducted based on the study objectives and presented as a narrative summary.

The study sought to explore the perceptions and attitudes of women in the perinatal period towards the reproductive health services of male midwives.

The study adopted an in-depth exploratory descriptive design for data collection and themes extracted using thematic analysis.

Antenatal and postpartum units of two primary healthcare facilities in the Kwabre-East District of Ghana.

20 women in the perinatal period who were receiving antenatal care and delivery services from the facilities included in the study were recruited through purposive sampling.

Divergent views emerged among our participants regarding the acceptability and utilisation of perinatal services provided by male midwives. Some participants perceived male midwives as patient, supportive, caring, compassionate and skilful at their work while the negative attitude related to some participants perceiving their interactions with male midwives as an opportunity for sexual violation. Positive attitudes emanated from male midwives’ empathetic behaviour, reception, privacy and confidentiality of information. Conversely, negative attitudes arose from a lack of awareness of the changing female gender domination in midwifery, fear and misconceptions. Finally, participants faced various challenges, rooted in culture, which impacted their acceptance of male midwifery services.

Factors influencing participants’ negative perceptions and attitudes towards male midwives were born out of culturally motivated and gender-sensitive stereotyping rather than male professional midwifery competencies. The study outcome provides the basis and the need for a community-based intervention to effect changes in the perception and attitude of women in the perinatal period towards male midwifery practice in the affected communities. Increasing awareness of the existence of male midwives in the communities would contribute to increasing acceptance and utilisation of their services among women in the perinatal period in Ghana.

Countries in the WHO’s African region have found community-based surveillance useful in ensuring the effectiveness of the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response strategy. This approach encourages community participation in the surveillance system, in addition to early detection of outbreaks and other health threats. Thus, advancements in mobile health have the potential to improve community-based surveillance in Africa. The purpose of this review is to map evidence on available mhealth tools for community-based infectious disease surveillance in Africa.

The scoping review will follow a mixed-methods approach in line with the framework of Arksey and O’Malley amended by Levac and colleagues and the Joanna Briggs Institute. To retrieve published literature, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar and Google databases will be explored. Websites of organisations involved in surveillance activities across the African region will also be explored. Authors will be interested in published literature between 2000 and 2022 in any language. The primary investigator and a second author will independently review the retrieved titles according to the inclusion criteria, while a third reviewer will resolve conflicts that may arise. The review will map evidence according to the key concepts (mhealth, community-based surveillance and Africa) to inform stakeholders and mhealth designers on best practices to adopt involving mhealth approaches at the community level and mhealth tool designs, respectively. Results following the review will be presented according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: Extension for Scoping Review Guidelines.

Ethical approval is not required for scoping reviews as it does not involve the use of human subjects. This review is the first phase in an overall project on digital health. The findings of the review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and disseminated at suitable forums and conferences.