Community Engaged Approaches to Cervical Cancer Prevention and Control in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Scoping Review Protocol

Abstract Introduction Cervical cancer is the fourth leading cause of death in women globally and remains the foremost cause of death in African women in spite of campaigns to increase education and prevention of the disease. The goal of participatory action research or community based participatory research is to engage communities in the research process in order to increase disease awareness and decrease disease mortality as a result of health disparities. The primary objective of this study is to summarize methods of community engagement in research on the prevention and control of cervical cancer in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). MethodsWe will search through the following electronic databases for potential studies: PubMed, Embase, African Journals Online (AJOL), and African Index Medicus-WHO from inception until the date the last search will be conducted. Articles included will be restricted to those published in English and pertaining to research conducted in SSA. Articles generated from the search will be managed in our database. A narrative synthesis will be performed on the final list of included articles. DiscussionThis scoping review will provide evidence and perspectives on how research studies have engaged community members to bolster the cervical cancer prevention and control efforts. Findings of this review will contribute to the literature by identifying the benefits of community engagement in cervical cancer prevention in SSA and advance the science of cervical cancer prevention in the region and globally.