Evidence on point-of-care diagnostics for assessment of nutritional biochemical markers as an integral part of maternal services in low- and middle-income countries: systematic scoping review protocol

Background: Malnutrition affects a third of the global population with low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) being the most affected. Most of those affected by malnutrition have limited means of determining their nutritional status. Recent developments of point-of-care (POC) diagnostics promise to enable early diagnosis of nutritional deficiencies or disease risk through biochemical indicator assessment. This provides potential opportunities for relatively simple interventions before the emergence of clinical symptoms. The main objective of this systematic scoping review is to map evidence on accessibility to POC diagnostic tests for the assessment of nutritional biochemical markers as an integral part of maternal health services in LMICs.

Methods and analysis: We will search for relevant literature from the following databases: PubMed, Science Direct, EBSCOhost (Academic search complete, CINAHL with full text, MEDLINE with full text, MEDLINE), Google Scholar and World Health Organization library database. We will also search reference lists of included studies and existing networks such as organisations and conferences to source relevant literature. Primary research articles, published in peer-reviewed journals; review articles and grey literature that address the research question will be included. We will also search clinical trial registers to find relevant studies. Two independent reviewers will screen abstracts and full articles in parallel, from the included studies, using specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines will be used for reporting the screening results. NVivo version 10 will be employed to enable content thematic analysis of the review findings. A narrative summary of the results will be presented according to the emerging themes.

Discussion: We anticipate finding relevant literature on point-of-care diagnostic services for assessment of biochemical indicators as part of maternal services in low- and middle-income countries. The evidence obtained from the included studies when summarised will help to guide future research.