Canadian educational resources about cannabis use and fertility, pregnancy and breast feeding: a scoping review protocol

Abstract

IntroductionCannabis use in Canada is becoming more prevalent across all demographic groups due to increases in accessibility and lowered perceptions of harm. These patterns are mirrored among women of reproductive age, including women who are pregnant. Given increasing evidence for detrimental short- and long-term impacts of cannabis exposure on fetal, newborn and child outcomes, there is a need for high-quality, accessible resources providing reliable guidance and recommendations on this topic for both the public and healthcare providers. We will conduct a scoping review to identify and characterise all publicly available online educational resources discussing cannabis use related to fertility, pregnancy and breastfeeding developed by Canadian organisations.Methods and analysisUsing Arksey and O’Malley’s scoping review methodology as a guide, we will search Medline (Ovid), Medline in Process (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), ERIC (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCOhost) and Education Source (EBSCOhost). We will also conduct a grey literature search targeting the websites of national and independent Canadian obstetrical societies and networks, and government and public health offices that provide recommendations or guidance to individuals and their healthcare providers seeking information on cannabis use related to fertility, pregnancy or breastfeeding.Ethics and disseminationResearch ethics approval is not required for scoping review studies. We anticipate that this review’s findings will be disseminated through traditional channels, including preprint and peer-reviewed publications and presentations at academic conferences. In addition, the resources and guidelines identified in the study will be gathered and made available online on a single comprehensive public repository.Protocol registration numberosf.io/p24y5.

Canadian Resources on Cannabis Use and Fertility, Pregnancy, and Lactation: Scoping Review

“…The protocol for this scoping review was registered a priori in the Open Science Framework [ 17 ] and has been published [ 18 ]. Protocol deviations are noted in Multimedia Appendix 1 .…”

“…These websites were identified in consultation with stakeholders in our professional networks. Websites were manually searched using a predefined keyword search strategy described in the published study protocol [ 18 ]. Resources with publication dates before 2010 were excluded.…”

“…Discrepancies arising at each step were discussed until a consensus was reached, and a third reviewer (MSQM) consulted when necessary. Records identified via website searching were assessed against predefined screening criteria as detailed in the published study protocol [ 18 ], and the URLs of eligible records were documented. The reference lists of all the included resources were reviewed to identify any relevant records that our search strategy may have missed.…”