Sexual behaviour, health, and health service accessibility during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: A scoping review

Background: Despite an upsurge in COVID-19 research and commentary early in the pandemic, the impact of restrictions on sexual health services, sexual behaviour, and sexual health outcomes was largely unknown. Objective: We reviewed emerging topics and research gaps surrounding sexual health during early stages of the pandemic and compared and integrated preliminary empirical evidence with nonempirical commentary. Methods: We searched MEDLINE, PsycInfo, and Scopus for English-language articles that measured or discussed the impacts of COVID-19 on sexual behaviour, sexual health, and sexual health services during the first four months of the pandemic (March-June 2020). We qualitatively analyzed extracted data. Categories were used to frame a narrative synthesis and comparative interpretation of empirical research and nonempirical commentary. Results: Of the 3,647 unique articles retrieved from the literature search, 97 were included. Only 32 articles (33%) presented empirical data. Most empirical articles were assigned ‘very poor’ or ‘poor’ quality. We found considerable gaps in the quantity and quality of evidence on sexual health reported during early COVID-19, with non-empirical conjecture dominating the literature. We also identified gaps between empirical and nonempirical articles, suggesting that the issues and concerns being discussed at the start of the pandemic were not being sufficiently or rigorously studied. Conclusions: The field should consider establishing infrastructure for researchers to communicate, coordinate, collaborate, and carry out high-priority and high-quality research during rapidly d/evolving public health emergencies. Equally important are systems to evaluate and synthesize emerging evidence for use by public health policymakers and practitioners.