Social marketing interventions for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs): A systematic review protocol

Background. Social marketing influences behaviors to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals and society, and this approach could be used in the field of public health for the prevention and control Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). NTDs are diseases of poverty that place a burden in individuals, communities and health systems, and that exacerbate the cycle of poverty. Differences in risk and socio-cultural factors make women and children differently vulnerable. Guided by the Hierarchical Model of Social Marketing, this systematic review will assess the breadth of coverage of social marketing interventions about the 17 World Health Organization’s priority NTDs. Additionally, it will use the WHO Gender Assessment Tool (GAT) to assess the gender responsiveness of the included interventions. Methods. This protocol follows the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P). Searches will be conducted in the databases of PubMed, EbscoHost, ProQuest, Web of Science (WOS), Global Index Medicus and Virtual Health Library (VHL) Regional Portal, and there will be no language restriction. Social marketing interventions implemented at the community, health facility and public policy settings will be included if they target an NTD; it applies at least 1 of the 4 core social marketing concepts, and 1 of the 5 social marketing techniques as described in the Hierarchical Model of Social Marketing. Data management of records will be done in Covidence, a Cochrane systematic review platform, and of data extracted in Excel. The QATSDD Critical Appraisal Tool will be used to assess the quality of individual studies in terms of how they report their research processes. Discussion. The results of this review will contribute to understand the social marketing concepts and techniques that have been used to address NTDs, and their behavioral determinants and behavioral outcomes. Furthermore, the results of this review will bring together the strengths from multidisciplinary fields by integrating gender, social marketing and NTDs in a systematic manner. Systematic review registration. PROSPERO CRD42017063858