Ní Chéileachair Fódhla, Caes Line, Belfield Sophie, Bartl Marion, Durand Hannah
Division of Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK
Division of Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK.
BMJ Open. 2025 Aug 6;15(8):e100273. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2025-100273.
Dysmenorrhoea (period pain) is a global public health issue affecting up to 91% of the 1.8 billion individuals who menstruate. While research has emphasised the improvement of menstrual health in low-middle-income countries, undertreated dysmenorrhoea remains an issue in high-income countries (HICs), where individuals often assume their pain experiences are normal. Studies report that individuals with dysmenorrhoea delay seeking medical care, avoid it entirely or are subjected to diagnostic and treatment delays. Difficulties accessing care are troubling, as individuals may suffer without access to evidence-based techniques, as well as the potential for underlying pathologies (eg, endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease) to go undiagnosed.Many HICs have launched strategies for women's health to address gaps in care access and knowledge around menstruation. Guided by Levesque and colleagues' (2013) Conceptual Framework of Access to Healthcare, this review will contribute to these strategies by providing an overview of factors affecting healthcare access for dysmenorrhoea in HICs from the point of perceiving a healthcare need to engaging with care, as well as factors affecting perceived quality of care.
This scoping review will follow the Joanna Briggs Institute's (JBI) guidance for scoping reviews and will be conducted with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses checklist extension for Scoping Reviews. Guided by Levesque and colleagues' (2013) Conceptual Framework of Access to Healthcare, searching will seek to locate both peer-reviewed studies across PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Web of Science databases, as well as using web scraping to locate relevant grey literature. Results will be synthesised and mapped to construct a pathway to care, highlighting factors affecting the healthcare access for dysmenorrhoea, as well as factors related to the quality of healthcare interactions.
This review does not require ethical approval, as only existing data will be analysed. Results will be shared using peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations. Datasets emerging from the study will be made available on Open Science Framework.
This review was initially registered on Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/2dsrc/) in February 2024, with an updated protocol registered in February 2025.
痛经是一个全球性的公共卫生问题，影响着全球18亿月经来潮女性中的91%。尽管研究重点关注改善中低收入国家的月经健康状况，但在高收入国家，痛经治疗不足仍是一个问题，这些国家的人们通常认为自己的疼痛经历是正常的。研究报告称，痛经患者会推迟寻求医疗护理，甚至完全回避，或者在诊断和治疗上出现延误。难以获得医疗护理令人担忧，因为患者可能因无法获得循证技术以及潜在病症（如子宫内膜异位症、盆腔炎）未被诊断而遭受痛苦。许多高收入国家已推出女性健康战略，以解决护理获取和月经知识方面的差距。以勒维克及其同事（2013年）的医疗保健获取概念框架为指导，本综述将通过概述高收入国家中从感知医疗需求到接受护理过程中影响痛经患者获得医疗保健的因素，以及影响护理感知质量的因素，为这些战略做出贡献。
本范围综述将遵循乔安娜·布里格斯研究所（JBI）的范围综述指南，并将按照系统评价和荟萃分析的首选报告项目清单扩展版进行。以勒维克及其同事（2013年）的医疗保健获取概念框架为指导，检索将旨在查找PubMed、CINAHL、PsycINFO和科学网数据库中的同行评审研究，同时使用网络爬虫查找相关灰色文献。结果将进行综合和映射，以构建护理途径，突出影响痛经患者获得医疗保健的因素以及与医疗互动质量相关的因素。
本综述无需伦理批准，因为仅分析现有数据。结果将通过同行评审出版物和会议报告进行分享。研究产生的数据集将在开放科学框架上提供。
本综述最初于2024年2月在开放科学框架（https://osf.io/2dsrc/）上注册，2025年2月注册了更新后的方案。
