Protocol for a scoping review on the statistical methodology used to produce global estimates of health indicators

Introduction Global estimates of health indicators are used to determine, set, and track progress of indicators towards global targets. However, there is no standard framework to produce these estimates, and therefore, numerous methods and approaches are used. Methods We aimed to conduct a scoping review of studies that produced global estimates for health-outcome related indicators with a focus to understand the statistical methodology and approaches applied in the development of estimates. The scoping review will follow the framework proposed by Arksey and O’Malley. Articles will be searched in the following main health databases: EMBASE; Medline; PubMed; Scopus; Web of Science; World Health Organisation - Global Health Estimate Methods database. Only studies published in English will be included. Screening of articles and data extraction of eligible articles will be performed by two independent reviewers. Data extraction will follow a checklist. The findings of the systematic review will be summaried using narrative synthesis. Where appropriate, data will be summarised using descriptive statistics and visual plots. Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval is not required for this study because only published data will be analysed. Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and scientific conferences.