Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Multifarious chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) guidelines have been published by local, national and global respiratory societies. These guidelines subsume holistic evidence based on recommendations to diagnose, treat, prevent and manage acute exacerbation with COPD. Despite the existing comprehensive recommendations, readmission rates and hospitalisations have increased in the last decade. Evidence to date has reported suboptimal clinical guidelines concordance. Acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD) is a common hospital presentation due to varied causes such as infective exacerbations, worsening disease condition, medication non-adherence, lack of education and incomprehensive discharge planning. AECOPD directly and indirectly causes economic burden, disrupts health-related quality of life (HRQol), hasten lung function decline and increases overall morbidity and mortality. COPD being a multimodal chronic disease, consistent interdisciplinary interventions from the time of admission to discharge may reduce readmissions and enhance HRQol among these patients and their families. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This protocol adheres to the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for mixed methods systematic reviews and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews reporting guidelines. Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods studies will append this study to explore determinants of COPD guidelines concordance. Comprehensive three-tier search strategies will be used to search nine databases (COCHRANE, EBSCO HOST, MEDLINE, SCIENCE DIRECT, JBI, SCOPUS, WEB OF SCIENCE, WILEY and DARE) in May 2020. Two independent reviewers will screen abstracts and full-text articles in consonance with inclusion criteria. The convergent integrative method narrative review will contribute a deeper understanding of any discrepancies found in the existing evidence. Quality of the studies will be reported and Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) will be used as a priori to synthesis data. Identified barriers, facilitators and corresponding clinical behavioural change solutions will be categorised using TDF indicators to provide future research and implementation recommendations. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval is not required and results dissemination will occur through peer-reviewed publication.