Mosquito-borne disease and community engagement in high-income countries: scoping review

Background & Aim: High-income countries in sub-tropical and tropical regions are at increasing risk of Aedes mosquito borne disease outbreaks. As the Aedes mosquito predominately lives and breeds in and around people's homes, engaging communities in mosquito borne disease management is an important part of preventing disease outbreaks. Historically government led strategies have dominated community engagement efforts rather than empowering or co-production strategies designed and led by the community. A scoping review was conducted in 2018 to: 1.To describe the community engagement approaches used in aedes mosquito-borne disease management within high income countries, and identify any reported outcomes of these methods 2.To characterize the extent to which empowering approaches are included as part of these community engagement approaches Method: A systematic search was conducted of peer-reviewed literature using electronic databases MEDLINE (OVID), Informit, CINAHL and Scopus published between 2004 and 2018. Grey literature was also searched primarily through key Mosquito Association websites. Results & Conclusions: Twenty studies matched the review criteria. Community engagement strategies within each study were critiqued against eight community empowerment domains. Results showed few community engagement strategies incorporated more than one domain of empowerment. Review suggests over reliance on government led approaches. The rationale for using predominantly government led approaches was not clear; further research is required to understand the barriers to employing empowering approaches in mosquito management in high-income countries