Qualitative analysis of perinatal mental health

This protocol provides a reproducible scoping blueprint to map perinatal mental health among South Asian immigrant women in Canada, emphasizing subgroup heterogeneity, service access gaps, and participant-reported themes.

Use standardized extraction of immigration variables and AI-assisted coding to accelerate thematic mapping while preserving transparency and an audit trail.

• The protocol was published 20 July 2026 and will run its review from July 2026 to January 2027, covering literature from Jan 2000 onward.
• The population of interest is ~2, 000, 000 South Asian Canadians (about 7% of Canada), with a national survey estimate that 23% of mothers report symptoms consistent with postpartum depression or anxiety.
• Databases to be searched include MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Scopus, plus grey literature from government and community organizations.

This protocol matters because it commits to rigorous scoping methods (JBI and PRISMA-ScR) to map how South Asian immigrant women in Canada are represented across perinatal mental health research.

Key payoffs for researchers and policy teams include a reproducible evidence map, clear gaps such as subgroup reporting by country of origin, language, and migration pathway, and standardized code domains for comparative qualitative synthesis.

• Databases to be searched: MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Scopus, and grey literature from government and community organizations.
• Inclusion criteria: studies from Jan 2000 onward, pregnancy through 12 months postpartum, all designs (qualitative, quantitative, mixed) if they report extractable South Asian subgroup data.
• Primary outcome: mapping outcomes, measurement tools, risk and protective factors, and access barriers and facilitators, rather than estimating pooled effect sizes.

This section explains the methods: the protocol uses dual screening for titles and abstracts, a primary extractor for full texts with supervisory adjudication, a piloted extraction form, and narrative plus descriptive synthesis with charted frequencies and content analysis for participant-reported experiences.

• Eligibility uses JBI PCC (Participants: South Asian immigrant women in Canada; Concept: perinatal mental health; Context: Canada).
• Grey literature and protocols are included to capture emerging work; non-English full texts will be excluded if no translation is available (the protocol notes this as a potential bias).
• Coding approach: iterative codebook development, independent coding of a sample, reconciliation meetings, and an audit trail for transparency.

Follow this practical run-book that mirrors the protocol and reduces manual overhead.

• 1) Collect sources: export search results (MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Scopus) and gather grey PDFs, then upload them to Evidano.
• 2) Build extraction template: mirror the protocol’s data-charting form (study IDs, outcomes, instruments, immigration variables).
• 3) Auto-scan and pre-code: run Evidano’s initial pass to identify common terms such as 'postpartum', 'acculturation', and 'family pressure'.
• 4) Import a starting codebook and apply AI-assisted coding; review and refine codes on a calibration sample (n≥10 studies).
• 5) Generate thematic summaries, frequency tables, and cross-segment comparisons by country of origin, language, and migration pathway.
• 6) Export shareable evidence maps, PRISMA flow diagram data, and a stakeholder brief for policy teams.

This conclusion answers next steps: the PLOS protocol published 20 July 2026 sets a clear, reproducible blueprint to map perinatal mental health among South Asian immigrant women in Canada.

• Ethics note: this work is research-focused and non-diagnostic, and any use of interview data requires appropriate consent and local ethics review.
• Ready to operationalize this protocol? Start a pilot in Evidano and import the protocol’s extraction framework to get thematic maps and cross-segment comparisons in days, not months, or Try Evidano for free.