Mental health patterns and associated social determinants among university and college students in Sub-Saharan Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic era: A Scoping Review Protocol
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Objective
The objective of this scoping review is to identify and map the literature that documents student mental health patterns and associated social determinants during the COVID-19 pandemic era in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) universities and colleges.
Introduction
The rationale for the scoping review is to identify gaps in existing literature. Most of the current data on student mental health and the prevalence of mental disorders in universities and colleges during the COVID-19 years is from the global north. There is limited data for Sub- Saharan African universities on student mental health and the extent to which social determinants contribute. The review will also provide areas for further research among Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the SSA region.
Eligibility criteria
Only documents published during the years 2020 to 2023 from SSA will be included and documents from outside the period and outside the geographic region will not be considered. HEIs will be post-school education universities and colleges, and so school level reports will be excluded.
Methods
This scoping review will be conducted using various search engines on existing data for student mental health and social determinants in the era of COVID-19 (years 2020 to 2023). Search engines will include MEDLINE (PubMed), PsycInfo, EMBASE (Ovid), African Index Medicus, Open Access Journals, CINAHL, JBI Library, Google Scholar, the Cochrane Library (Ovid), and Grey Literature (various relevant health related websites). Search limits will only consider documents written in English language. Search terms will be student mental health, university mental health services, social determinants of health, social determinants of mental health and Sub-Saharan Africa. Documents searched will be uploaded into EndNote 21 and will be coded, and themes will be generated using NVivo-12.
Results
Results will be reported using the Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines (Wits-JBI evidence synthesis procedure) and presented as tables and graphs. The key findings of the scoping review in together with the research question will be reported once completed.
Conclusions
A conclusion based on the scoping review findings along with the objectives will be provided when the review is completed. Main implications of the findings (if any) will also be conveyed.
