A critical evaluation of the effectiveness of interventions for improving the well-being of caregivers of children with cerebral palsy: a systematic review protocol.

BACKGROUND: Over the years, family-centered care has evolved as the "gold standard" model for the provision of healthcare services. With the advent of family-centered approach to care comes the inherent need to provide support services to caregivers in addition to meeting the functional needs of children with physical disabilities such as cerebral palsy (CP). Provision of care for a child with CP is invariably associated with poor health outcomes in caregivers. As such, there has been a surge in the development and implementation of interventions for improving the health and well-being of these caregivers. However, there is a paucity of the collective, empirical evidence of the efficacy of these interventions. Therefore, the broad objective of this review is to systematically review the literature on the effectiveness of interventions designed to improve caregivers' well-being.

METHODS/DESIGN: This is a systematic review for the evaluation of the effectiveness of interventions designed to improve caregivers' well-being. Two independent, blinded, reviewers will search articles on PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, Psych Info, and Africa-Wide Information using a predefined criterion. Thereafter, three independent reviewers will screen the retrieved articles. The methodological quality of studies meeting the selection criterion will be evaluated using the Briggs Institute checklists. Afterwards, two independent researchers will then apply a preset data-extraction form to collect data. We will perform a narrative data analysis of the final sample of studies included for the review.

DISCUSSION: The proposed systematic review will provide the empirical evidence of the efficacy of interventions for improving the well-being of caregivers of children with physical disabilities. This is important given the great need for evidenced-based care and the greater need to improve the health and well-being of caregivers.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42016033975.