Concept of premature mortality: protocol for a scoping review

Premature mortality (PM) is a concept applied in public health, epidemiology, medicine, demography and economics. Its conceptualisations vary across disciplines and often rely on implicit normative assumptions. A scoping review is needed to build a typology to systematise PM conceptualisations and make their assumptions explicit.

We will conduct a scoping review following the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology and report using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Searches in PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science (to July 2025) identified 53 470 records, of which 20 612 duplicates were removed. Titles and abstracts of 32 858 unique records were screened in Rayyan using filters, machine learning and manual review. To the large volume of the remaining articles, we applied purposeful sampling supported by the BERT language model, grouping articles based on titles and abstracts into 436 subtopics. We selected one representative and one randomly sampled article from each group. 84 articles identified during manual screening as conceptually distinct were added to the review data. In total, 954 articles will be screened in detail and reviewed in full text. Review questions were developed based on six predefined dimensions of PM conceptualisations: inclusiveness, study objective, reference point, conceptual centrality, discipline and ethical framing. Review data will be extracted across these dimensions. We will develop a typology of PM conceptualisations to support more transparent and consistent use of the concept across disciplines, including normative assumptions of its conceptualisations.

As this review uses secondary literature, ethical approval is not required. Results will be published in an open access, peer-reviewed journal and presented at international conferences.