Impacts of Swachh Bharat Mission on Health and Communicable Disease Control: A Systematic Review Protocol

Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) is a major initiative led by the Government of Bharat (India) in 2014 to improve sanitation across the country. While the government has received international praise for SBM's achievements, the health impacts of this initiative are not well understood, and to date, no systematic review has been conducted on the topic. In this protocol, we aim to describe our methodology for systematically reviewing the literature to determine the impacts of SBM on communicable disease control and population health outcomes across Bharat.

This protocol describes the process that will be taken for our systematic review. The review will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis guidelines. Searches will be conducted in Scopus, Embase, Medline, Web of Science, Cumulated Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, PubMed, and Global Health. Original, full-text research articles conducted after October 2014 (the enactment of SBM) will be eligible for inclusion, as will be gray literature. Modeling studies will be excluded from this review. Studies which analyze impacts/trends relating to health or communicable disease control in any region of Bharat will be eligible for inclusion Included studies will assess at least one of the following: impact on infectious disease incidence/prevalence and morbidity/mortality, infant and under-five mortality, nutritional impacts (including stunting, underweight and wasting) or non-communicable disease rates. Study quality will be assessed using the Kmet checklist. Where possible, data will be pooled and synthesized to determine overall findings and trends.

This review will highlight the extent to which SBM has, or has not, had lasting impacts on health and communicable disease control. The findings of this review can have important implications in shaping and guiding the ongoing implementation of SBM across Bharat.