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Equity-Relevant Sociodemographic Variable Collection in Emergency Medicine: A Systematic Review, Qualitative Evidence Synthesis & Recommendations for Practice.

OBJECTIVES
To conduct a systematic review and qualitative evidence synthesis (QES) to identify best practices, benefits, harms, facilitators and barriers to the routine collection of sociodemographic variables in Emergency Departments (EDs).


DESIGN
A systematic review and QES.


DATA SOURCES
We conducted a comprehensive search of Medline (Ovid), CINAHL (Ebsco), Cochrane Central (OVID), EMBASE (Ovid) and the multidisciplinary Web of Science Core database using peer-reviewed search strategies, complemented by a grey literature search.


ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
We included citations containing perspectives on routine sociodemographic variable collection in EDs, recommendations on definitions or processes of collection or benefits, harms, facilitators or barriers related to the routine collection of sociodemographic variables in EDs.


METHODS
We conducted this systematic review and QES adhering to the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) guidelines. Two reviewers independently selected included studies and extracted data. We conducted a best-fit framework synthesis and paired inductive thematic analysis of the included studies. We generated recommendations based on the QES.


RESULTS
We included 21 unique reports that enrolled 10,454 patients or respondents in our systematic review and QES. Publication dates of included studies ranged from 2011 to 2021. Included citations were published in Australia, Canada and the USA. We synthesized 11 benefits, 14 potential harms, 15 barriers, 19 facilitators and identified 14 best practice recommendations from included citations.


CONCLUSIONS
Health systems should routinely collect sociodemographic variables in EDs guided by recommendations that minimize harms, maximize benefits and consider relevant barriers and facilitators. Our recommendations can serve as a guide for the equity-focused reformation of EM health information systems.