Smoking cessation interventions in South Asian countries: protocol for scoping review

INTRODUCTION: Unfortunately, like many other health risks, smoking rate has been on the rise in developing countries. Half of current smokers in the world reside in only three countries of Asia that include India. Many smoking cessation interventions that were developed and successfully implemented in the context of developed countries have not been equally successful in South Asia. Hence, there is a dire need of culturally relevant smoking cessation interventions. We propose a scoping review with objectives to explore the extent and nature of interventions for smoking cessation and its associated factors in South Asian Region by systematically reviewing the available published and unpublished literature. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The review has been registered in Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) systematic reviews register and details are given in the Methodology section. The updated framework of JBI for scoping review methodology will be used as guide for conduct of this scoping review. Electronic databases (PubMed, CINAHL plus, Proquest Theses and Dissertations, EBSCO Dentistry and Oral Sciences, and Wiley Cochrane Library), reference lists of selected studies and grey literature will be considered for inclusion in this review. The literature search is anticipated to be carried out in December–January 2020. Initially, two reviewers in consultation with a librarian will develop search syntax followed by search from the selected sources. Consequently, the reviewers will screen all the titles, abstracts and full articles to establish relevance of each study for inclusion. Factors associated with smoking cessation will be coded and categorised applying qualitative content analysis, while interventions extracted from the literature will be described with the stated level of effectiveness.