This paper describes a scoping review protocol to map available evidence and identify gaps in sexual health interventions related to sexual networks, sexual practices, and sexual health among youths aged 18-24 years across the WHO South-East Asia Region.
The South-East Asia Region has one of the largest youth populations in the world, making sexual health a priority for achieving Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
Youths aged 18-24 in the region engage in high-risk behaviors including unsafe injecting practices and substance abuse, leading to increased transmission of sexually transmitted infections including HIV.
The scoping review protocol follows the Arksey and O'Malley framework and will search three databases plus grey literature from 2015 to the present.
The review will synthesize evidence from qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method studies on sexual networks, sexual practices, and sexual health among youths in WHO SEAR.
The review is intended to generate evidence that will assist in designing larger evidence-based intervention studies for improving sexual health among youths in the WHO SEAR.
This paper is not a completed study but rather a protocol — a detailed plan — for a scoping review that will gather and map existing research on the sexual health of young people (ages 18-24) living in the 11 countries of the World Health Organization's South-East Asia Region (SEAR), which includes countries such as India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Thailand. The researchers note that this region is home to one of the largest youth populations globally, and that young people in this age group are at elevated risk for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, partly due to behaviors such as unsafe drug injection and unprotected sex. The planned review will search major scientific databases and grey literature (such as government and NGO reports) published from 2015 onwards, with two independent reviewers assessing which studies qualify for inclusion. This research suggests that there are important gaps in understanding how sexual networks (the social connections through which infections can spread), sexual behaviors, and sexual health outcomes interact among young people in this part of the world. By systematically mapping what is already known, the review aims to highlight where knowledge is lacking and where health programs and interventions could be improved or newly developed. The practical importance of this work lies in its potential to inform better-designed public health programs targeting youth sexual health in a region that is critical to global goals around reducing HIV and other sexually transmitted infections by 2030. Because this is a protocol paper rather than a results paper, no findings have yet been produced — the actual review and its findings will be published separately.
Rao A, Shinde R, Shahabuddin S. (2025). Sexual networks, sexual practices, and sexual health among youths in WHO-South East Asia Region: a scoping review protocol.. Systematic reviews. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-025-02905-0