Where are race-based oral health inequities bound? Protocol for a systematic review on interventions to tackle racial injustice in dental outcomes

Only three literature reviews have assessed the impact of interventions on the reduction of racial inequities in general health to date; none has drawn from attempts at promoting racial oral health equity. This protocol aims to increase transparency and reduce the potential for bias of an ongoing systematic review conceived to answer the following questions: Are there any interventions to mitigate racial oral health inequities or improve the oral health of racially marginalized groups? If so, how successful have they been at promoting racial oral health equity? How do conclusions of previous reviews change by taking the findings of oral health interventions into account?

Reviewed studies must deploy interventions to reduce racial gaps or promote the oral health of groups oppressed along ancestral and/or cultural lines. We will analyze randomized clinical trials, natural experiments, pre-post studies, and observational investigations that emulate controlled experiments by assessing interactions between race and potentially health-enhancing interventions. Either clinically assessed or self-reported oral health outcomes will be considered by searching for original studies in MEDLINE, LILACS, PsycInfo, SciELO, Web of Science, Scopus, and Embase from their earliest records to March 2022. Upon examining abstracts of conference proceedings, trial registries, reports of related stakeholder organizations, as well as contacting researchers for unpublished data, we will identify studies in the grey literature. If possible, we will carry out a meta-analysis with subgroup and sensitivity analysis, including formal meta-regression, to address potential heterogeneity and inconsistency among selected studies.

Conducting a systematic review of interventions to mitigate racial oral health inequities is crucial for determining which initiatives work best and under which conditions they succeed. Such knowledge will help consolidate an evidence base that may be used to inform policy and practice against persistent and pervasive racial inequities in general and oral health.

This protocol has been registered at the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews, under the identification number CRD42021261450.