Current pesticide suicide surveillance methods used across the African continent – A scoping review protocol

Introduction
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- and 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 health care personnel, and influencing the type and level of clinical facility investments into this area of health care. 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.
Methods and analysis
A scoping review will be carried out with the five-stage methodological frameworks set out by Arksey & O’Malley and the JBI 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.