Preconception Care Interventions for Adolescents and Young Adults to Prevent Adverse Maternal and Child Health Outcomes: Protocol for an Evidence Gap Map

Background: Preconception is the period before a young woman or woman conceives, which draws attention to understanding how her health condition and certain risk factors affect her and her baby's health once she becomes pregnant. Adolescence and youth represent a life -course continuum between childhood and adulthood, in which the prepregnancy phase lacks sufficient research. Objective: The aim of the study is to identify, map, and describe existing empirical evidence on preconception interventions that enhance health outcomes for adolescents, young adults, and their offspring. Methods: We will conduct an evidence gap map (EGM) activity following the Campbell guidelines by populating searches identified from electronic databases such as MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, and Cochrane Library. We will include interventional studies and reviews of interventional studies that report the impact of preconception interventions for adolescents and young adults (aged 10 to 25 years) on adverse maternal, perinatal, and child health outcomes. All studies will undergo title or abstract and full -text screening on Covidence software (Veritas Health Innovation). All included studies will be coded using the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information (EPPI) Reviewer software (EPPI Centre, UCL Social Research Institute, University College London). Cochrane Risk of Bias tool 2.0 and Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews -2 (AMSTAR -2) tool will be used to assess the quality of the included trials and reviews. A 2D graphical EGM will be developed using the EPPI Mapper software (version 2.2.4; EPPI Centre, UCL Social Research Institute, University College London). Results: This EGM exercise began in July 2023. Through electronic search, 131,031 publications were identified after deduplication, and after the full -text screening, 18 studies (124 papers) were included in the review. We plan to submit the paper to a peer -reviewed journal once it is finalized, with an expected completion date in May 2024. Conclusions: This study will facilitate the prioritization of future research and allocation of funding while also suggesting interventions that may improve maternal, perinatal, and child health outcomes.