A scoping review of health professional oncosexology education and training programs focused on adolescents and young adults (AYA)

ABSTRACT

Background: AYA with cancer commonly experience sexuality concerns during and post treatment. Evaluation andmanagement of these critical aspects are often neglected by health professionals due to factors such as poor knowledge, confidence and communication, lack of comfort, time and prioritisation of sexuality concerns. It is not known what policy and practice tools are available to bridge this evidence gap. Aim(s) To scope, analyse and map the literature on policy and practice tools, specific to AYA oncosexology education and training programs, for health professionals. Method(s) A scoping review was conducted using the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology. A search strategy was developed using key words initially tested in OVID MEDLINE. The formal search was conducted in July 2022 in Medline, EMCARE, EMBASE and PsychINFO (all on OVID platform) for articles published after 2012;in English;qualitative, quantitative, mixed method studies, case studies, review articles or grey literature;in patients aged 15-39 years. Articles were excluded if they did not meet these criteria, only examined potential education/training programs or health professionals' knowledge, attitudes or practices, or only focused on patients' perspectives. Retrieved articles were extracted into Covidence and two screening roundswere independently performed by two authors each for the final analysis and evidence synthesis. Result(s) After removing 1140 duplicate records, 1825 records were screened of which 1523 were excluded and 302 full texts assessed for eligibility. The final number of studies included along with other quantitative findings will be reported against the PRISMA-ScR reporting checklist. Results from the basic content analysis to organise qualitative findings into higher level categories will also be presented. Conclusion(s) Evidence gaps, limitations and implications for research will be discussed. We will seek stakeholders' views on whether our findings are locally relevant and how they can inform improvements in health professional oncosexology policy and practice tools.