Oral Health Policy Assessment in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region: A Scoping Review Protocol

<ns3:p>Background Although preventable and treatable, oral diseases affect nearly half of the world’s population, driven by limited accessibility and equity in oral healthcare services, and lack of integration of oral health into noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and universal health coverage (UHC) agendas. The World Health Organization (WHO) Global Strategy and Action Plan on Oral Health 2023–2030 (WHOOH) emphasizes the importance of embedding oral health in national health systems and policies. Evidence-informed oral health policies (OHPs) can help reduce disease burden, improve access, and address inequalities. However, in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region (WHO EMR) (hereafter, EMR), current policies have not achieved meaningful impact, constrained by barriers that require comprehensive analysis and systematic evaluation. This review aims to systematically identify and assess OHPs and barriers and facilitators influencing their creation, dissemination, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation (CDIM&amp;E). Methods A systematic search was developed for Ovid MEDLINE, and also used to search Embase, Cochrane Library, and Epistemonikos. It will also be applied to global and regional databases, covering January 2014 to December 2024 without language restrictions. Additional searches will be conducted on government websites (e.g., ministries of health) to capture OHPs. Eligible documents will include official and up-to-date national OHPs, and research or policy-related documents reporting barriers to and facilitators for the CDIM&amp;E of OHPs. Independent reviewers will perform screening and data extraction using DistillerSR. Quantitative data will be analyzed in R Studio using descriptive statistics, while qualitative data will undergo thematic analysis in NVivo. Discussion Advancing evidence-informed OHPs in the EMR requires mapping existing national policies, evaluating their alignment with WHOOH targets, and understanding the barriers and facilitators for their CDIM&amp;E. This review’s findings may help and support ministries of health, chief dental officers, academic institutions, and regional interest-holders to inform policy dialogue and support collective efforts to achieve the WHOOH targets. Registration The protocol is registered with the Open Science Framework (OSF): https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/DQ6E4.</ns3:p>