Development and validation of a clinical guideline for responding to child sexual abuse in Iran: a mixed-methods study protocol

Background: Failure to provide health services for complications of child and adolescent sexual abuse harms for health in survivors. Designing and executing a clinical guideline that provides evidence-based services for the survivor's problems based on their practical context is the best approach. Here, we purpose to develop and validate a clinical guideline for health care services for children and adolescents with sexual abuse in Iran. Methods: : We will develop and validate a guideline in three phases by using an exploratory sequential mixed methods approach: (1) Conducting a systematic review on studies, resources, and guidelines on health care services for survivors worldwide and describing the diagnostic and treatment needs for survivors of sexual abuse in Iran and the health services they receive.(2) Developing a guideline on health care services for children and adolescents who survived sexual abuse in Iran based on the results of phase 1 and relevant comments from key informants by "nominal group technique" through multiple steps.(3) Validating the guideline and determination of the ‘User Agreement’ and key stakeholders about the applicability of this guideline by using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research & Evaluation Instrument. Discussion: Due to the limitations that exist in this area in Iran, a comprehensive, practical, and cultural-based guideline on providing diagnostic and treatment services for children and adolescents who survived sexual abuse will be developed. It is expected that this guideline can significantly prevent many short and long-term sexual abuse complications and improve the quality of life of survivors of sexual abuse by providing timely health care services . Registration and grant number: This project was approved by Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran with the ethics code of (IR.MODARES.REC.1398.230), and (Grant no. 1398-230).