Neonatal transport practices and effectiveness of the use of low-cost interventions on the morbidity and mortality of transported neonates in Sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review protocol

ObjectivesPoor pre-transport and intra-transport care are associated with early neonatal morbidity and mortality. The objective of this study is to produce a critical overview of research on neonatal transport practices, the use of any low-cost interventions, including Kangaroo mother care (KMC) employed in neonatal transport on the outcomes of neonates transported for specialized care in Sub-Saharan Africa, through a systematic review and narrative synthesis. Study designThe study design is a protocol for systematic review MethodsA comprehensive literature search will be conducted using the electronic databases of CINAHL, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Web of Science, as well as Google Scholar. A manual search will be carried out of the reference lists of eligible studies for relevant papers. The search strategy will include combining three key blocks of terms, namely: neonates, transport and Sub Saharan Africa, using database-specific subject headings and text words. Two independent reviewers will screen and assess data quality and extraction for synthesis. Any disagreements during the data extraction and quality assessment stages will be determined by consensus with the involvement of a third reviewer. Study quality will be assessed using the Mixed-Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT); a narrative synthesis will be undertaken to integrate and summarise findings. Subgroup analysis will be done where data is available within countries with different groups of neonates and modes of transportation. Ethics and disseminationApproval by a research ethics committee is not required for this study since the review only includes published and publicly accessible data. Findings from this review will inform research into the use of Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) in neonatal transport in Ghana. We will publish our findings in a peer-reviewed journal as per Preferred Reporting for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) 2020 Guidance RegistrationPROSPERO registration CRD42022352401