Measures used to evaluate the burden due to non-typhoidal Salmonella infections in humans resistant to third/fourth/fifth generation cephalosporins and quinolones: a protocol for a scoping review

Background: Non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) is a major cause of foodborne illness and commonly occurs through the consumption of contaminated food of animal origin such as poultry, eggs, milk, and undercooked meat. Humans infected with multidrug-resistant NTS are more likely to be hospitalized due to illness, have bloodstream infections, and have higher mortality when compared to those with antimicrobial susceptible infections. Objectives: This protocol outlines the process used to conduct a scoping review investigating the measures used to evaluate the burden due to NTS infections in humans resistant to third/fourth/fifth generation cephalosporins and quinolones. The scoping review aims to synthesize relevant literature to determine which burden measures are used to characterize resistant NTS infections, how the selected burden measures are reported, and how the burden of illness measures in resistant NTS infections compare to those with susceptible NTS infections. Methods/Design: Any observational study design will be considered for inclusion if it is published after December 31st, 1989 in English or French. To be considered eligible for this scoping review, the studies will need to have human patients with a microbiologically confirmed infection. The resistance of interest are third, fourth and fifth generation cephalosporins or quinolones. Studies evaluating MDR or resistance with combinations of drug categories will be excluded. The outcomes that must be included are the evaluation of one or more measures of the burden of illness. Literature will be retrieved from the primary databases PubMed ®, Embase ®, and Global Health, as well as grey literature. Screening and data extraction will be conducted using DistillerSR ®. The results of the scoping review will be presented as a narrative synthesis following the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for Scoping Reviews [PRISMA-ScR] checklist.