The awareness of women on prostate cancer: a mixed-methods systematic review protocol

BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer accounts for about 10% of cancers affecting and claiming the lives of men. Studies have reported that women are better than men in recognition of the early manifestations of various cancers. Besides, women have been recognized to show a profound interest in their partners’ health and hence, make observations that men do not know. Several studies have reported on the knowledge gaps of prostate cancer among patients and the general population. It is vital to comprehensively review the available evidence and identify research gaps in our current understanding of knowledge of women on prostate cancer. METHODS: A search of bibliographic databases, MEDLINE (EBSCOhost), CINAHL (EBSCOhost), PsycINFO (EBSCOhost), Web of Science, and EMBASE (Ovid) will be undertaken from January 1999 to December 2019. The search will be limited to studies published in the English language. Duplication of studies will be removed using the EndNote citation manager. After deduplication, citations will be screened independently by two authors according to prespecified criteria. Data extraction and quality assessment of the selected studies will be done independently by two authors. Meta-analytic methods will be used where appropriate. The convergent segregated method of synthesis will be adopted in this review. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Primary data collection will not be involved in this study, hence formal ethical clearance will not be needed. The results of the study will be presented through a peer-reviewed journal and conference presentation. PATIENT AND PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT: Patients or the public will not be engaged in the conduct of this study. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Open Science Framework (OSF) registration DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/EYHF2 SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13643-020-01513-4.