Pregnant and postnatal women's experiences of interacting with health care providers about their tobacco smoking: a qualitative systematic review protocol.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this review is to comprehensively identify and synthesize the best available evidence about the experiences of women who smoked tobacco during pregnancy or postnatally (or both) concerning their health care providers' interactions with them about their smoking.

INTRODUCTION

Smoking tobacco during pregnancy and postnatally continue to be important global public health challenges. Maternal smoking poses risks to the woman's general health and causes pregnancy complications and serious adverse health effects for the fetus and child. Hence, it is essential that health care providers support pregnant and postnatal women to achieve smoking cessation and not relapse. Learning about these women's experiences of health care provider interactions may inform recommendations for health care provider best practice in interpersonal approach.

INCLUSION CRITERIA

The participants of interest are women who smoked tobacco during pregnancy, the postnatal period, or both, with the phenomenon of interest being their experiences of health care provider interactions with them about their smoking. The context is any setting globally. Studies for consideration will have qualitative data, including any mixed methods studies.

METHODS

This qualitative systematic review will be conducted according to JBI methodology. Databases to be searched for published studies include CINAHL, PubMed, APA PsycINFO, Embase, Sociological Abstracts, and SocINDEX. Gray literature will be searched for unpublished studies. The authors will conduct an initial screening and then a full-text review of studies for congruence with the inclusion criteria. A critical appraisal will be performed on eligible studies and data will be extracted from included studies. Meta-aggregation will be used to yield synthesized findings, which will be assigned confidence scores.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION NUMBER

PROSPERO CRD42020178866.