Breathing exercises for the management of gastrointestinal conditions: protocol for a scoping review

Objectives This scoping review will identify and map the literature on breathing exercises for the management of gastrointestinal conditions. Introduction Emerging evidence suggests the potential benefits of breathing exercises for gastrointestinal conditions. However, there is a lack of a comprehensive review to systematically map the research done in this area, as well as to identify existing gaps in knowledge and guide future research. Inclusion criteria The review will consider any study that describes or evaluates a breathing exercise to manage a gastrointestinal condition or symptom in a patient population. Original studies including controlled clinical trials and observational studies (e.g., on patient’s experience), systematic reviews, scoping reviews, meta-analyses or any other form of systematic evidence synthesis, and case series will be sourced from published literature, gray literature, and the references of retrieved articles. Case reports, narrative reviews, letters, comments, editorials, and experimental studies including a healthy population only will be excluded. Methods The review will follow the Joanna Briggs Institute Reviewer’s Manual for the conduct and reporting of scoping reviews. Databases to be searched will include PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CINAHL, JBI Evidence Synthesis, and databases for gray literature. All databases will be searched from inception till the present. Retrieved citations will be independently reviewed, relevant studies will be included, and data will be extracted using a data extraction form. The results will be presented in tabular format, accompanied by a narrative summary and figures. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This study did not receive any funding. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All data produced will be available online either in the supplementary material or in other publicly available databases.