Evidence of TB Diagnostic Services at Primary Healthcare Level During COVID-19: A Scoping Review Protocol

Abstract BackgroundUninterrupted delivery of tuberculosis (TB) diagnostic services is paramount, since early diagnosis allows for timeous treatment which improves treatment outcomes, reduces the period of infectiousness and limits the development of antibiotic resistant strains of TB. In 2020, the urgency of the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic supposedly strained many existing public health initiatives. We propose a scoping review to map the evidence of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on TB diagnostic services at primary healthcare (PHC) level. Method and AnalysisThis scoping review was guided by the Arksey and O’Malley framework. We will search the databases: PubMed, Web of Science, MEDLINE Ovid, Medline EBSCO, PsycInfo, CINAHL and Scopus. We will also search for reports from national health websites and the World Health Organization (WHO). Two independent reviewers will screen titles, abstracts and full texts of retrieved articles. The chosen articles will be represented in a data charting table. We will conduct a content thematic analysis using NVivo 10 software to extract relevant themes from the included articles. Findings will be presented according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis: Extension for Scoping Review (PRISMA-ScR). We will assess the quality of the included articles using the mixed methods assessment tool (MMAT). DiscussionWe anticipate that this scoping review will reveal the extent to which TB diagnostic services have been either maintained or disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This information will direct future research, and reveal barriers and enablers for TB diagnostic services during a pandemic.