Current pesticide suicide surveillance methods used across the African continent: a scoping review protocol.

Journal: BMJ open

Volume: 12

Issue: 8

Year of Publication: 2022

Affiliated Institutions:  Division of Environmental Health, University of Cape Town Faculty of Health Sciences, Observatory, Western Cape, South Africa. Centre for Pesticide Suicide Prevention, The University of Edinburgh The Queen's Medical Research Institute, Edinburgh, UK. Global Health Section, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Division of Environmental Health, University of Cape Town Faculty of Health Sciences, Observatory, Western Cape, South Africa andrea.rother@uct.ac.za.

Abstract summary 

Every year, more than 800 000 people die from suicides of which an estimated 20% are from pesticide ingestion. Multiple studies have estimated that around 77%-80% of these pesticide suicides occur in low/middle-income countries. The full burden of pesticide suicides in African countries remains poorly documented, one reason being the lack of systematic data collection. It is essential to know the number of pesticide suicide cases to guide prevention of further cases occurring. This can be done by informing policy and legislation, and the implementation of targeted bans, as well as raising community awareness around the use of these pesticides, training of healthcare personnel, and influencing the type and level of clinical facility investments into this area of healthcare. The scoping review aims to investigate how pesticide suicide deaths in Africa are recorded by exploring the various surveillance systems in place, as well as highlighting key limitations and data collection barriers.A scoping review will be carried out with the five-stage methodological frameworks set out by Arksey and O'Malley and the Joanna Briggs Institute. Studies in English that looked at pesticide suicide in African countries will be extracted and screened independently by two reviewers against the inclusion and exclusion criteria of this review. Studies' data will be extracted, and a descriptive synthesis developed of their main findings, as guided by the approach of Levac and colleagues.Ethics approval is not required for this review as no human participants will be involved. The study findings will be distributed in a peer-reviewed publication.This protocol has been submitted for publication to .

Authors & Co-authors:  Brassell Maxine M Karunarathne Ayanthi A Utyasheva Leah L Eddleston Michael M Konradsen Flemming F Rother Hanna-Andrea HA

Study Outcome 

Source Link: Visit source

Statistics
Citations :  Curl CL, Spivak M, Phinney R, et al. . Synthetic pesticides and health in vulnerable populations: agricultural workers. Curr Environ Health Rep 2020;7:13–29. 10.1007/s40572-020-00266-5
Authors :  6
Identifiers
Doi : e055923
SSN : 2044-6055
Study Population
Male,Female
Mesh Terms
Delivery of Health Care
Other Terms
MENTAL HEALTH;PUBLIC HEALTH;Protocols & guidelines;Risk management;Suicide & self-harm
Study Design
Descriptive Study,Cross Sectional Study
Study Approach
Systemic Review
Country of Study
Publication Country
England