JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Self-harm is one of a public health concern. Prevalence of self-harm has been steadily increasing globally, mainly during COVID-19 due to the lockdown restrictions. It also impacts healthcare workers (HCWs) for many reasons such as social and family role, or a poor status integration within the profession, heavier work load, bullying at workplace and less support in the workplace and others.

Objective:

To synthesize the evidence on the prevalence and factors associated with self-harm among HCWs.

Methods:

We will conduct a systematic review of observational and experimental studies that investigated the overall prevalence of self-harm among HCWs. We will search PubMed, Psych Info, Embase, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature Complete (CINAHL) for any eligible articles from inception until Mac 2025 using specific search terms develop using PECO (Population, Exposure, Comparison and Outcome). Study selection and reporting will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and the Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE) guidelines. We will contact the corresponding author via email of the interest data is uncompleted. After the article search, removal of duplicate article will be performed before tittle and abstract screen was performed based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Full article will be retrieved before full article screen. All interested data in this review such as name of authors, publication year, prevalence of self-harm, type of profession, associated risk factors to self-harm and others will be extracted using a standardised data extraction form and the quality of the studies will be assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute’s (JBI) guideline based on the study design. Random-effects meta-analysis will be used to derive the pooled prevalence using STATA version 17.0. We will conduct a subgroup meta-analysis on sex, regions, and type of professions either doctor, nurses. We will also perform the risk factors of self-harm with sociodemographic to observe the association. Both analyses will be performed using REVMAN software. The publication bias will be examined using funnel plot and egger test.

Results:

We will repot the current global overall or pooled prevalence of self-harm and by region in table and figure format (forest plot). We will also observe the risk factors associated with the self-harm among HCWs after retrieved the interest data from the full article screening.

Conclusions:

This review will provide a comprehensive synthesis of the overall prevalence of self-harm among HCWs. This review will also provide important information to inform practice in developing effective strategies for preventing and managing self-harm among HCWs.