Appiah-Danquah Rita, Quarshie Emmanuel Nii-Boye, Larry-Afutu Joana, Osafo Joseph
Department of Psychology, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
Department of Psychology, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana.
BMJ Open. 2025 Aug 6;15(8):e099964. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2025-099964.
Individuals are diagnosed with terminal/chronic conditions on a daily basis globally. Unfortunately, a substantial proportion of the global disease burden of chronic illnesses is recorded within sub-Saharan Africa. Providing or receiving such news can be devastating and may be influenced by cultural preferences and contextual differences. Identifying existing trends and how such news is broken in sub-Saharan Africa will be relevant to identify and inform practice and future research.
This systematic review protocol was developed by following the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Protocol (PRISMA-P), and findings will be reported by following the guidelines and recommendations of PRISMA-2020. CINAHL, Global Health, MEDLINE, PubMed, Scopus, AJOL and APA PsycINFO will be searched for articles. Additional records will be gathered through reference harvesting in Google Scholar search. QualSyst will be used to assess the methodological quality of studies included. Thematic synthesis will be used to analyse and synthesise the findings from the eligible studies.
Due to the fact that systematic reviews focus on accessible and available literature without the direct involvement of human participants, ethical approval will not be sought. The completed review will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal and may be presented at health conferences. The important findings would be shared with stakeholders and those involved in developing and conducting training for health practitioners, all of whom are involved in breaking bad news.
CRD42025642707.
全球每天都有个体被诊断出患有晚期/慢性疾病。不幸的是，撒哈拉以南非洲地区记录了全球慢性病疾病负担的很大一部分。传递或接收此类消息可能是毁灭性的，并且可能受到文化偏好和背景差异的影响。识别现有趋势以及此类消息在撒哈拉以南非洲地区是如何告知的，将有助于识别并为实践和未来研究提供信息。
本系统评价方案是按照系统评价与Meta分析方案的首选报告项目（PRISMA-P）指南制定的，研究结果将按照PRISMA-2020的指南和建议进行报告。将检索CINAHL、全球健康、医学索引、PubMed、Scopus、非洲期刊在线（AJOL）和美国心理学会心理学文摘数据库（APA PsycINFO）中的文章。还将通过在谷歌学术搜索中收集参考文献来获取更多记录。将使用QualSyst来评估纳入研究的方法学质量。将采用主题综合法来分析和综合符合条件的研究结果。
由于系统评价关注的是可获取的文献，且不直接涉及人类参与者，因此无需寻求伦理批准。完成的综述将提交给同行评审期刊，并可能在健康会议上发表。重要研究结果将与利益相关者以及参与为健康从业者开展培训的人员分享，他们都参与了告知坏消息的工作。
PROSPERO注册号：CRD42025642707。
