Access to chronic pain services for adults from Minority Ethnic groups in the United Kingdom: A scoping review protocol

Abstract

Background Chronic pain services in the United Kingdom are required to provide services which meet the diverse needs of patients, but little is known about the access and use of these services by Minority Ethnic groups. This protocol describes a scoping review that aims to assess whether adults who access secondary and tertiary chronic pain services are representative of the UK population. Methods A scoping review will be conducted, comprising comprehensive searches of the literature using EMBASE, MEDLINE and CINAHL databases, and grey literature for records that address the study aims. Studies that meet the eligibility criteria will report on: (i) access to chronic pain services in secondary and/or tertiary care in the United Kingdom, (ii) by adults and, (iii) state the ethnicity of the involved participants within the demographics. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies will be included to draw broad conclusions of what the cumulative evidence says on this topic. Publication dates are limited to between 2004 and 2021 as demographic data from studies published during this period best represent the UK population recorded in the 2011 UK census. The screening and selection process will be conducted by four reviewers and data will be extracted by one reviewer. A descriptive synthesis of the extracted data will be performed. Discussion This scoping review will be among the first to explore whether the current adult population of those with chronic pain who are accessing chronic pain services in secondary and/or tertiary care across the United Kingdom are representative of the UK Minority Ethnic population.