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International Journal of
Population Studies COVID-19 and access to family planning in Africa

Bioline International. All study designs were considered for selection bias and avoid presumptions about an increase in
inclusion, with the exception of opinion pieces, protocols, family planning issues due to the recent renewed interest in
and review articles. To meet our inclusion criteria, studies linking family planning to development in SSA (Harpham
were required to specifically address the aspects of access et al., 2021), we confined our consideration to articles
to or utilization of family planning and/or contraception published between 2010 and the end of March 2022. This
among adolescent girls and women of reproductive age strategy means that articles published from 2010 to 2019
in SSA. would represent the pre-COVID-19 period. From other
sources, such as Google Scholar, we retrieved 14 articles.
2.1. Searching for eligible studies Therefore, the total number of retrieved articles amounted
The study sought to examine the impact of COVID-19 to 5,430. All articles published in languages other than
on access to family planning services among adolescent English language were excluded to facilitate ease of access.
girls and women of reproductive age in SSA through a
scoping review. Guided by Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI)’s 2.3. Inclusion and exclusion criteria
Population, Concept and Context (PCC) approach (Peters To be eligible for inclusion in this review, articles must,
et al., 2015), we conducted a literature search using firstly, address the topics of access or use (or related
relevant keywords in the search strategy, supplemented, keywords) of family planning (or similar keywords) among
where applicable, by the use of Medical Subject Headings women and must have been conducted in one or more
(MeSH). Specifically, the databases searched for relevant countries in SSA. Additionally, all articles must represent
articles included MEDLINE, WoS, African Journals primary research conducted between 2010 and the end
Online (AJOL), and Bioline. Additionally, Google Scholar of March 2022. This temporal criterion ensured that the
was explored for related articles. Ab initio, keywords such data for analysis in such studies were current and roughly
as “access,” “family planning services,” “women,” and “sub- indicative of the level of access to family planning services
Saharan Africa” were employed in searches on AJOL and at the time of publication. Essentially, studies included in
MEDLINE. Identified studies were subjected to pre-review the review adhered to cross-sectional designs. In contrast,
to locate synonymous keywords used by authors addressing studies categorized as mere commentaries, reviews,
similar concepts. Subsequently, additional related keywords or those focusing on subjects other than reproductive
for each concept were identified and incorporated into adolescent girls and women were excluded. Additionally,
subsequent extended searches. For instance, alongside articles that relied on secondary data in their analyses were
“access,” related keywords included “use,” “uptake,” excluded to avoid the duplication of findings from the same
“utilization,” “practice,” and “going for.” Adhering to the dataset. Furthermore, studies involving subjects inherently
PCC guide during the general search across the databases, disadvantaged in access to family planning services, such
synonymous keywords were employed in the “Population” as refugees, sex workers, pastoralists, and others, were
category, corresponding to women in this study. These excluded. This exclusion aimed to mitigate potential
included “girls,” “adolescent girls,” and “female.” In the biases associated with extreme access levels among these
“Concept” category, which pertains to family planning populations.
services in this study, keywords such as “Family Planning”
and “Contraception” were used. Both “family planning 2.4. Selection of studies for review
services” and “Contraception” were truncated to ensure From the total pool of retrieved articles (5,430) resulting
the retrieval of all relevant articles. Additionally, within the from restrictions on the period of interest, we conducted
“Context” category, along with “sub-Saharan Africa,” each an assessment of article titles and removed duplicates to
of the 47 countries was employed. Where applicable among ensure a focused examination of all concepts of interest.
the databases, the Boolean operator OR was applied within This process yielded 226 articles. Subsequently, after
a concept and its related keywords, while AND was used to reviewing abstracts and method sections to further
combine all themed concepts in the searches. ascertain the relevance of articles to the current review,
113 articles were selected. At the final stage, a thorough
2.2. Identification of relevant studies examination of the full texts was undertaken to confirm

Specifically, 1,404 articles were retrieved from WoS, and each remaining study as primary research, focused on
AJOL returned a total of 100 relevant articles. Bioline adolescent girls and women, and in compliance with
returned 24 articles, and 3,888 articles were retrieved from all other inclusion criteria. This comprehensive review
MEDLINE (PubMed). These numbers of articles resulted culminated in the final inclusion of 36 articles for this
from our consideration of the time COVID-19 disease review paper. The details of the article selection process
was detected, which was late in 2019. To mitigate potential are depicted in Figure 1.

Volume 10 Issue 1 (2024) 7 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.365