Objective:

This systematic review aims to identify and explore the experiences and views of women, children, and professionals regarding second-hand smoke exposure prevention in the home, workplace, school, personal vehicles, and public places in Middle Eastern countries.

Introduction:

Exposure to second-hand smoke is a significant public health problem globally, but particularly in Middle Eastern countries. Whilst many Middle Eastern countries have implemented tobacco-control programs and have legislation that bans smoking in public places, the legislation is not always comprehensively implemented or enforced. Therefore, women and children continue to be exposed to second-hand smoke in public and private settings.

Inclusion criteria:

This review will consider studies that include the views and experiences of any of the following three groups:(i) women (including pregnant women and mothers),(ii) children (primary and secondary school age), and (iii) professionals (including health professionals and policy makers), regarding the prevention of second-hand smoke exposure in women and children in Middle Eastern countries.

Methods:

MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Scopus, and sources of gray literature will be searched for eligible studies. Databases will be searched from their inception dates and no language restrictions will be applied. Two reviewers will independently screen studies and assess methodological quality and extract data from the included studies following JBI systematic review guidelines. The JBI process of meta-aggregation will be used to identify categories and synthesize findings. The ConQual approach will be used to assess confidence in the findings.

Systematic review registration number:

PROSPERO (CRD42019137006)

Introduction

Second-hand smoke (SHS) exposure, also known as environmental tobacco smoke exposure and passive smoking, is the involuntary inhalation of other people's tobacco smoke by non-smokers. 1 Second-hand smoke consists of mainstream smoke (exhaled by a smoker) and side-stream smoke (emitted from the burning end of a cigarette or Shisha tobacco holder between inhalations). Second-hand smoke contains over 4000 chemicals, with more than 70 known to be carcinogenic. 2