Barriers to use of contraception

Funding opportunity

Researchers are invited to apply for a new grant funding opportunity sponsored by Canadian Forces Health Services (CFHS), Director of Women and Diversity Health (DWDH), to conduct a systematic or scoping review regarding barriers to access and use of contraception in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), other military forces, and Canadian and Global populations. This systematic or scoping review is required to determine what research exists to date on the barriers patients face when accessing or using long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) and/or short-acting reversible contraception (SARC), with a hierarchical priority of studies which investigate the CAF members, other military members, Canadians, and then Global population.

Anticipated timeline and budget

Background

Women and diverse populations have been historically under-researched in medicine, and this has limited our knowledge of their unique health needs, including health risks, prevention, and treatment options. For these reasons, CFHS established the Directorate of Women and Diversity Health (D WDH) to optimize the prevention, health care and support for women and diverse CAF members, using an intersectional lens to improve their physical, mental and psychosocial wellbeing.

To better support our members, there is a need to understand what barriers exist for CAF members attempting to access or use contraceptive and/or menstrual suppression medication, both in domestic home-base, OUTCAN and deployed settings.

Research objectives

This funding opportunity is seeking submissions from researchers to conduct a systematic or scoping review on the evidence regarding barriers that exist for CAF members attempting to access contraceptive and/or menstrual suppression medication, both in domestic home-base, Out of Canada Postings (OUTCAN) and deployed settings. Additionally, this systematic or scoping review aims to identify what factors are involved in a member’s choice between LARC, SARC or other types of types of contraceptives, if and how they would like to be enabled to make these choices, and whether amenorrhea or dysmenorrhea is a factor in the choice of contraception.

Researchers are encouraged to use a broad search strategy so that research from different militaries, as well as civilian population research, is included. Sub-analysis or interpretation may be needed for each country to show differences between countries and what is most relevant to the CAF population. Researchers are encouraged to include research from grey literature to not limit the systematic or scoping review to the published literature. Researchers are expected to follow established methods for systematic or scoping reviews (e.g. PRISMA). Some members of the research team should have previous experience with conducting and publishing systematic or scoping reviews.

Desired outputs

• Systematic or scoping review that can be published in a peer-reviewed publication, that follows appropriate guidelines and checklist (e.g. PRISMA).
• Search strategy should be focused on work applicable or generalizable to the CAF population but should draw broadly to include international literature, and grey literature. 
• Quarterly progress reports provided to the DWDH.
• The final report should include the following:
  • A systematic or scoping review in the format of a manuscript ready for submission, or already submitted, for publication in a scientific peer-reviewed journal (please include any publication fees in your application). This includes an Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Data analysis, Results, Discussion and References.
  • Summarize best practice guidelines from literature to optimize CAF members’ access contraceptive and/or menstrual suppression medication, both in home-base and deployed settings.  
  • Comment on any additional considerations for developing patient education packages and awareness, as well as changes to provider practice related to contraceptive use/access for women and diverse CAF members.
  • Appropriate PRISMA checklist.
  • SAGER guidelines followed.
• Virtual presentation of findings to project sponsor (may take place after the project end date). 

Applicant qualifications and requirements for selection

• Principal investigator on the project must have a PhD in a relevant field.  
• All appropriate academic research guidelines must be followed, including, when required, a research ethics board approval from Defence Research Development Canada (DRDC) or any accredited academic institution in Canada.
• Approval from the Surgeon General Health Research Board is required. A CFHS point of contact will be provided to facilitate this process once the research proposals are selected.

Application deadline

Please download and submit the Research Funding Application form.

Enquiries

Questions about this funding opportunity can be sent to the VAC Research office at research-recherche@veterans.gc.ca.