Global gaps in how we assess undergraduate medical students' mental health: a scoping review protocol

Mental health problems among undergraduate medical students are a major global public health concern that emerge early during training and are shaped by demanding educational environments, emotional stressors and organisational pressures. Although research has expanded rapidly, the literature remains fragmented across themes, regions and methods. This scoping review aims to map the global quantitative literature on medical students' mental health and identify gaps in scope, geography, methodology and equity.

This scoping review will be conducted in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute methodological guidance and reported in accordance with PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews) guidelines. We will include quantitative studies assessing mental health among undergraduate medical students. MEDLINE (Ovid), Web of Science (Clarivate), the Cochrane Library (Wiley) and PsycINFO (Ovid) will be searched without date or language restrictions using a keyword-based search strategy. Two reviewers will independently screen titles, abstracts and full texts and extract data using a standardised form. Data will include publication year, country, study design, sample size, mental health measures, thematic domains and patterns of collaboration. Mental health domains will be classified using an a priori thematic framework encompassing psychological symptoms and distress, psychological resources, academic environment, social support and physical health and lifestyle factors. Equity-related variables (sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status) will be operationalised based on analytical use. Results will be synthesised descriptively using tables and visualisations.

Ethical approval is not required. Findings will be disseminated through publication and presentations. The dataset and code will be openly available on publication.

Protocol registration will be made available online via the Open Science Framework (doi:10.17605/OSF.IO/2EHNU).