Effects of natural hazards on early childhood development: a systematic review protocol

INTRODUCTION: Natural hazards are damaging environmental events, such as fires, droughts and floods, which have negative impacts on human lives, livelihoods and health. Natural hazards are increasing in intensity and severity, and may potentially have harmful effects on the health and development of children who experience them. There are few syntheses of the evidence about the effects of natural hazards on the early development of children aged from birth to 5 years old. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to determine the impact of natural hazards on the cognitive, motor, language, social and emotional development of children from birth to 5 years old. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Comprehensive searches will be conducted in five bibliographic databases: Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid PsycInfo, CINAHL Plus, Scopus and Ovid EMBASE, using predefined search terms to identify the relevant studies. The review will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Eligible studies will be included if they report on the association between exposure to natural hazards and at least one indicator of early childhood development (ECD). Extracted data will include: main study findings, characteristics of the study design, measures of natural hazards and ECD indicators. Observational studies with cross-sectional, case–control, prospective or retrospective cohort designs will be included in this review. Case descriptions and qualitative studies will be excluded. Study quality will be assessed using the Joanna Brigg’s Institute critical appraisal tools. We will conduct a meta-analysis if the reviewed studies are sufficiently homogeneous according to research design, exposure, participants and outcome measures. The meta-analysis will include subgroup analyses (eg, length of exposure to natural hazard, type of natural hazard, ECD indicator). ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The findings will be disseminated through a peer-review publication, policy brief, technical report and report published on institutional stakeholder websites. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42022331621.