Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2017
Elder abuse is an important public health and human rights issue, yet its true extent is not well understood. To address this, we will conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of elder abuse prevalence studies from around the world. This protocol describes the methodological approach to be adopted for conducting this systematic review and meta-analysis. In particular, the protocol describes the search strategies and eligibility criteria to be used to identify and select studies and how data from the selected studies will be extracted for analysis. The protocol also describes the analytical approach that will be used to calculate pooled prevalence estimates and discusses the use of meta-regression to assess how studies’ characteristics influence the prevalence estimates. This protocol conforms to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis – or PRISMA – guidelines and has been registered with the PROSPERO International Prospective Register of systematic reviews.
La maltraitance des personnes âgées est un important problème de santé publique et de droits de l’homme. Néanmoins, notre connaissance de la veritable ampleur du phénomène demeure limitée. Pour y remédier, nous allons procéder à une revue systématique et une méta-analyse des études de prevalence de la maltraitance des personnes âgées dans le monde entier. Ce protocole décrit l’approche méthodologique qui sera adoptée pour la réalisation de la revue systématique et de la méta-analyse. En particulier, le protocole décrit le développement des stratégies de recherche et des critères pour identifier et sélectionner les études de prévalence ainsi que la façon dont les données des études sélectionnées seront extraites pour l’analyse. Le protocole décrit également l’approche analytique qui sera utilisée pour calculer les estimations de prevalence et l’utilisation de méta-régression pour évaluer la façon dont les caractéristiques des études influencent les estimations de la prévalence. Ce protocole est conforme au “Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis” – ou PRISMA – et a été enregistré auprès du registre de revues systématique PROSPERO International Prospective Register.
We thank George Leeson and Kate Hamlin from the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, University of Oxford, for their comments and suggestions on this research protocol. Thank you also to the Oxford Martin School for providing the James Martin Visiting Fellowship to conduct this research at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing.
Contributors: YY conceived of the systematic review and meta-analysis, designed the protocol, drafted the manuscript, developed the search strategy, and pilot searched the databases and data extraction criteria. CM contributed to the development of the review protocol, search strategy, selection criteria, risk of bias assessment strategy, data extraction criteria, and gave statistical advice, and provided critical revision of the manuscript. ZDG and KHW contributed to the development of the search strategy, and provided statistical advice and critical revision of the manuscript. All authors read, provided feedback, and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Funding: The review is funded by the Doctoral Fellowship that was awarded from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the University of Southern California (USC), and the World Health Organization (WHO) to support the collection of primary data, data management, and analyses by YY. The funders (i.e., SSHRC, USC, WHO) will have no input on the interpretation or publication of study results.