Evidence suggests a 38% risk reduction in breast and bowel cancer-specific mortality with higher levels of exercise, however, most of this evidence is observational. More clinical trials are needed to build strong evidence for exercise’s impact on recurrence and survival. This study aims to assess the feasibility, acceptability and potential efficacy of a remote, tailored exercise programme on disease-free survival in patients recently completing curative treatment for early-stage, high-risk lung, breast or bowel cancer.

This UK-based, multicentre randomised controlled basket feasibility trial compares a personalised, remote-delivered exercise programme supported by exercise professionals against usual care. Potential participants are approached if they are: aged 18 or over, diagnosed with high-risk, early-stage breast, bowel or lung cancer, and within 24 weeks of completing primary curative treatments. Participants complete objective measures of physical function (submaximal cardiovascular fitness, endurance, muscle strength and balance), body composition (bioelectrical impedance) and self-reported outcomes (total physical activity, sleep quality, general quality of life (QoL), cancer-related QoL and exercise confidence/motivation). Clinical case note review provides disease-free survival outcomes at 6, 12 and 24 months. The 12-week programme is delivered remotely (via phone, email and/or video conference) with trainer contact tapering off over the subsequent 12 weeks (24 weeks total). Recruitment is ongoing with a 660-participant goal. Descriptive measures (quantitative and qualitative) will be reported for feasibility outcomes: recruitment, adherence, retention rates, data collection quality, adverse events, intervention acceptability and fidelity. A process evaluation is being conducted concurrently and is reported separately. Kaplan-Meier curves will be plotted and median disease-free survival calculated for each arm. To determine intervention impact, a log-rank test (unadjusted) will compare 2-year disease-free survival between groups within and among cancer types. Secondary outcomes (physical function status, general/cancer-specific QoL and determinants of meeting activity guidelines) will be reported at each time point.

Ethical approvals were obtained through Hull York Medical School (ID: 23/SS/0060) and UK NHS Health Research Authority (ID: 327663). Findings will be submitted for publication in high-impact journals, presentation at national and international conferences, press releases where appropriate, and dissemination activities to be decided on with the Patient Advisory Group.

ISRCTN97662203.

Opioid use disorder (OUD) during pregnancy is associated with increased rates of adverse perinatal, foetal and neonatal health events. Opioid agonist treatment (OAT) can substantially reduce the risk of these potential harms. In British Columbia (BC), methadone and buprenorphine/naloxone are first-line treatment options for pregnant people with OUD. However, the comparative effectiveness of these regimens during pregnancy remains poorly understood, particularly in terms of how dosage may impact clinical outcomes. This protocol outlines a proposed population-based retrospective study to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of methadone compared with buprenorphine/naloxone during pregnancy on perinatal and neonatal health outcomes.

We propose to conduct a retrospective observational study using population-based data from individuals who received methadone or buprenorphine/naloxone during pregnancy between 1 April 2010 and 31 March 2022. Data will be collected from 10 linked population-level administrative databases. We will emulate target trials using intention-to-treat and per-protocol approaches. We will use a pooled logistic regression approach to assess the impact of methadone versus buprenorphine/naloxone on time to OAT episode discontinuation and a dose-response marginal structural model to evaluate neonatal health at delivery. An exploratory observational analysis will also be conducted to describe the impact of methadone vs buprenorphine exposure during the first trimester of pregnancy on congenital malformations and anomalies.

This study has been determined to meet the criteria for exemption per Article 2.5 of the 2018 Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans. Study databases have been made available by the BC Ministries of Health and Mental Health and Addiction as part of the provincial opioid overdose public health emergency response. Results will be disseminated to policymakers, clinical partners, community programmes and people with lived and living experience of substance use and published in peer-reviewed journals.

To test associations between mental well-being across the life course and exposure to childhood physical and/or verbal abuse.

Secondary analysis of combined data from seven cross-sectional general adult population surveys measuring childhood experience of physical and/or verbal abuse and current mental well-being.

Households across England and Wales.

20 687 residents in England and Wales aged 18 years or over.

Self-reported childhood physical and verbal abuse using questions from an Adverse Childhood Experiences tool. Individual and combined components of adult mental well-being measured using the short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS).

Exposure to either childhood physical abuse or verbal abuse was associated independently with a similar significant increase in likelihood of low adult mental well-being, with exposure to both abuse types compounding increases (adjusted ORs 1.52, 1.64, 2.15 respectively, reference category: neither abuse type). Individual components of mental well-being showed similar associations, with adjusted prevalence of never or rarely having felt close to people in the last 2 weeks rising from 7.7% (neither abuse type) to 9.9% (physical abuse), 13.6% (verbal abuse) and 18.2% (both types of abuse). Within sample trends showed a significant drop in the prevalence of child physical abuse from around 20% in those born from 1950 to 1979 to 10% in those born in 2000 or after. However, verbal abuse rose from 11.9% in those born before 1950 to nearly 20% in those born in 2000 or after.

Exposure to childhood physical or verbal abuse have similar associations with lower mental well-being during adulthood. Interventions to reduce child abuse, including physical chastisement, should consider both physical and verbal abuse and their individual and combined consequences to life course health. The potential role of childhood verbal abuse in escalating levels of poor mental health among younger age groups needs greater consideration.

The enhanced midwifery continuity of carer (eMCoC) pilot programme provided additional resource (funding) to midwifery teams operating in the 10% most deprived areas in England. The eMCoC programme aims to provide additional support to those at greatest risk of poor maternal health outcomes. We conducted a rapid formative evaluation aiming to explore the implementation of the pilot programme to (1) generate timely insights to inform ongoing service delivery; (2) generate a logical framework of the eMCoC service and; (3) inform the design of a longer-term summative evaluation.

Rapid evaluation using mixed-methods.

We explored implementation of the eMCoC service in 58 funded local midwifery teams across 23 Local Maternity and Neonatal Systems (LMNS). We undertook qualitative data collection in 10 case study sites across England, focusing on the implementation in 17 teams.

We purposively sampled 34 service users who received care from enhanced teams, and 38 staff working in enhanced teams. Inclusion criteria for the service user interviews included women who had received care from enhanced teams during our evaluation period and were more than 28 weeks pregnant. Exclusion criteria included women who had not received care from our target teams. We undertook descriptive analysis using the Maternity Services Dataset to compare the characteristics of service users in enhanced teams with service users receiving other midwifery service models.

Many of the 58 teams funded were unable to implement eMCoC during the evaluation period because of institutional and organisational barriers. The barriers identified here are indicative of the barriers associated with implementing midwifery continuity of carer. Largely, the eMCoC service successfully targeted women living in the most deprived areas and a focus on reaching women living in these areas was valued by enhanced teams. Equally, enhanced teams strived to broaden the targeted characteristics (i.e. more broadly than on the basis of deprivation) to include a wider and more diverse set of social risk factors and vulnerabilities, based on local needs and priorities. Service users reported being well supported by the enhanced teams, including receiving relational and well-being support and personalised one-to-one public health education, information and support. Service users emphasised that enhanced teams went ‘above and beyond in their care’.

Funding for eMCoC has been well received by both staff and service users. The implementation of the enhanced roles was perceived to have supported delivery of team-based care, facilitating successful release of midwifery capacity and the delivery of additional public health activities. Supporting a team-focused ethos seems an important feature of eMCoC services. This was consistent across sites and from both staff and service user perspectives. There appears to be many routes (i.e. different service delivery types) to delivering enhanced care, and the multiplicity of service delivery types found in this evaluation suggests no tightly prescribed way of meeting eMCoC’s objectives. The flexibility of the initial funding specification guidance from NHS England has been a key driver of local ownership and permitted eMCoC services to be organically built ‘from the ground up’. Our conclusions point to the value of autonomy afforded to local areas to use eMCoC funding as they deem necessary to best suit the needs of their staff and specific service user groups. Attention should be placed on the barriers to implementation and sustainability issues which can be addressed, namely: delays in releasing funding from LMNS and Integrated Care Boards to providers, and protecting maternity support worker and midwifery time to their allocated teams.

To describe diagnostic and management characteristics of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) among participants in the ‘Searching for a Technology-Driven Acute Rheumatic Fever Test’ study, in order to answer clinical questions and determine epidemiological and practice differences in different settings.

Multisite, prospective cohort study.

One hospital in northern Australia and two hospitals in New Zealand, 2018–2021.

143 episodes of definite, probable or possible ARF among 141 participants (median age 10 years, range 5–23; 98% Indigenous).

Participant characteristics, clinical, biochemical and echocardiographic data were explored using descriptive data. Associations with length of stay were determined using multivariable regression analysis.

ARF presentations were heterogeneous with the most common ARF ‘phenotype’ in 19% of cases being carditis with joint manifestations (polyarthritis, monarthritis or polyarthralgia), fever and PR prolongation. The total proportion of children with carditis was 61%. Australian compared with New Zealand participants more commonly had ARF recurrence (22% vs 0%), underlying RHD (48% vs 0%), possible/probable ARF (23% vs 9%) and were underweight (64% vs 16%). Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) provided an incremental diagnostic yield of 21% compared with C reactive protein. No instances of RHD were diagnosed among participants in New Zealand. Positive throat Group A Streptococcus culture was more common in New Zealand than in Australian participants (69% vs 3%). Children often required prolonged hospitalisation, with median hospital length-of-stay being 7 days (range 2–66). Significant predictors for length of stay in a multivariable regression model were valve disease (adjusted OR (aOR) 1.56, 95% CI 1.23 to 1.98, p

This study provides new knowledge on ARF characteristics and management and highlights international variation in diagnostic and management practice. Differing approaches need to be aligned. Meanwhile, locally specific information can help guide patient expectations after ARF diagnosis.

To assess the impact of opening a large community-based asynchronous review ophthalmic clinic on attendance delays among patients with stable chronic eye disease attending a London teaching eye hospital network.

Interrupted time-series analysis of routine electronic health records of appointment attendances.

A large eye hospital network with facilities across London, UK, between June 2018 and April 2023.

We analysed 69 257 attendances from 39 357 patients, with glaucoma and medical retina accounting for 62% (n=42 982) and 38% (n=26 275) of visits, respectively. Patients over 65 made up 54% (n=37 824) of attendances, while 53% (n=37 014) were from the more deprived half of the population, and 51% (n=35 048) were males.

An asynchronous review clinic opened in a shopping centre in London, in autumn 2021, following the COVID-19 lockdown in spring 2020.

Average attendance delays (days), calculated as the difference between follow-up attendance date and the latest clinically appropriate date determined at the preceding attendance.

Pre-COVID-19, attendance delays for chronic eye disease monitoring were increasing by 0.9 days per week (95% CI, 0.8 to 0.9) on average, worsening to 2.0 days per week (95% CI, 2.0 to 2.0) after the first COVID-19 national lockdown, mid-March 2020. Opening the asynchronous review clinic increased appointment capacity, with delays decreasing on average by 8.1 days per week (95% CI, 8.1 to 8.2) shortly after opening. The rate of decrease slowed to 0.3 days per week (95% CI, 0.3 to 0.3) after 5 months. We found no significant differences in average attendance delays by age, gender or level of deprivation.

The asynchronous review clinic significantly reduced attendance delays across the hospital network, addressing pre-existing backlog for stable chronic eye diseases. The reduction appeared to be maintained after the initial backlog had been cleared.

It is unclear how mis- and disinformation regarding healthcare policy changes propagate throughout Latino communities via social media. This may lead to chilling effects that dissuade eligible individuals from enrolling in critical safety net programmes such as Medicaid. This study will examine pathways and mechanisms by which sentiment in response to mis- and disinformation regarding healthcare policies on social media differentially impact health disparity populations, thus supporting the design of tailored social media interventions to mitigate this.

We will search social media from X/Twitter, Facebook/Instagram and Reddit for keywords relating to health benefit programmes. Demographic, geographical location and other characteristics of users will be used to stratify social media data. Posts will be classified as fake-news-related or fact-related based on curated lists of fake-news-related websites. The number, temporal dissemination and positive or negative sentiment in reacting to posts and threads will be examined using the Python-based Valence Aware Dictionary and sEntiment Reasoner (VADER). Using a crowd-sourcing methodology, a novel Spanish-language VADER (S-VADER) will be created to rate sentiment to social media among Spanish-speaking Latinos. With the proposed approach, we will explore reactions to the dissemination of fake-news- or fact-related social media tweets and posts and their sources. Analyses of social media posts in response to healthcare-related policies will provide insights into fears faced by Latinos and Spanish speakers, as well as positive or negative perceptions relating to the policy over time among social media users.

Our study protocol was approved by the University of California, Los Angeles IRB (IRB#23–0 01 123). Results from this study will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals and conference presentations, and S-VADER will be disseminated to public repositories such as GitHub.

For every 100 women having a vaginal birth, approximately four will experience a severe (third-degree or fourth-degree) perineal tear. Severe perineal tears are associated with significant short-term and long-term consequences if not recognised and repaired. There are global efforts to reduce incidence of severe perineal tears including initiatives to strengthen education and training of clinicians in perineal anatomy and perineal tear assessment and classification. This systematic review aimed to describe and evaluate the effectiveness of these initiatives.

Systematic review, reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.

Medline (Ovid), CINAHL Complete (EBSCO), MIDIRS and EMBASE (Ovid) were searched through 15 February 2024.

Studies reporting simple or complex interventions aimed at improving the skills and knowledge of clinicians in perineal anatomy and/or the clinical assessment and classification of perineal tears were eligible.

Two reviewers independently screened studies for eligibility and appraised the quality of individual studies using the Cochrane Risk of Bias (RoB) 2.0 tool or Risk of Bias in Non-Randomised Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I) tool.

In total, 7645 citations were screened and 39 studies included. We identified nine unique interventions including training programmes, short workshops and senior obstetrician supervision. Many studies were from high-income countries, in primary care settings and at high risk of bias.

Effective education included practical components, such as hands-on skills and training in perineal anatomy, assessment and classification, rather than senior supervision alone. Ongoing review of practice appears to be crucial for maintaining knowledge and skills. Future research should focus on interventions tailored to limited-resource settings, and the optimal length and intensity of training programmes to assess and classify perineal tears.

CRD42020185431.

Depression in childhood is a long-documented public health concern.1 A large body of research has considered prevalence rates of depression in children around the world, given its relevance for lifespan mental health and well-being. Meta-analytic research...

To explore the role of shared decision-making (SDM) in the implementation of evidence-based practice in women with chronic hypertension planning birth and investigate the barriers and the facilitators in the provision of antenatal care.

A multimethod multisite approach was used including case-note review (n=55) and structured observations (n=18) to assess the provision of third trimester antenatal care. The barriers and facilitators to implementation were identified from semistructured qualitative interviews with healthcare professionals (n=13) and pregnant women (n=14) using inductive thematic analysis. The findings were integrated and evaluated using the ‘Three Talk Model of Shared Decision-making’.

Pregnant women with chronic hypertension, some with superimposed pre-eclampsia and their principal carers at three National Health Service hospital trusts.

Healthcare professionals delivering care to pregnant women with high blood pressure were aligned with most communication practices (set out in the Calgary-Cambridge communication guide). Pregnant women with hypertension who described being engaged in shared decisions about birth developed a trusting relationship with their maternity team. Despite frequent caesarean section birth (52%) and early term birth (median gestation at delivery 38 weeks (IQR1 37 weeks, IQR3 39 weeks) identified by case-note review; integrated data (observations, case-note review and qualitative interviews) found pregnant women with high blood pressure were not regularly provided with personalised information based on what they would find helpful, encouraged to share their own thoughts or offered choice in relation to timing or mode of birth. Uncertainty regarding the evidence around optimal timing of birth was the main barrier identified by professionals. Facilitators included training for professionals in SDM, midwife-led antenatal classes for high-risk women and multiprofessional clinics.

Strategies to promote more widespread adoption of SDM are likely to improve the experiences of women with high blood pressure making decisions about childbirth.

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic autoimmune disease that often presents with diabetic ketoacidosis at diagnosis. Since detection of type 1 diabetes risk is possible using genetic risk scores and autoantibody assays, prevention of diabetic ketoacidosis or delayed onset of type 1 diabetes may be possible and may improve outcomes. Several pilot screening programmes for type 1 diabetes risk have emerged worldwide but outcomes measured in these screening programmes are heterogeneous, making it difficult to compare and synthesise findings across studies. To improve the standardisation of outcome reporting and measurement, we aim to develop a patient-oriented core outcome set for studies of type 1 diabetes risk screening.

This five-step protocol was developed in alignment with the COS-STAndardised Protocol Statement and the Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials framework. The five steps will include: (1a) conducting a rapid literature review, (1b) gathering input on candidate outcomes from members of the public, (2) combining literature and public input to prepare a preliminary list of outcomes, (3) conducting Delphi surveys with a range of stakeholders to begin to establish consensus on outcomes, (4) holding a final consensus meeting to establish consensus on outcomes and (5) establishing the outcome measurement instruments for the core outcome set.

Ethics approval has been provided by The Hospital for Sick Children Research Ethics Board. The core outcome set will be distributed to researchers and clinicians involved in diabetes screening and clinical care, patient and family networks, research funders, journal editors, public health experts, and policymakers. Disseminated materials will be tailored to the various end users in the form of publication through academic journals, policy briefs, conferences, educational webinars, websites and social media.

To understand healthcare professionals’ and patients’ views and experiences of septoplasty and medical management (ie, nasal steroid and saline sprays) for nasal obstruction.

Nested qualitative study as part of the Nasal Airway Obstruction Study (NAIROS) trial. We used in-depth interviews to develop a coding framework based on thematic analysis.

NAIROS was a trial based in the UK from January 2018 to December 2020 that aimed to compare the effectiveness of septoplasty versus medical management.

We purposively sampled and interviewed 14 healthcare professionals (surgeons, research nurses) and 31 patients involved in the NAIROS trial across 14 UK hospital sites.

In usual practice, surgeons’ decisions regarding treatment for nasal obstruction are based on a complex assessment of patients’ symptoms, history and anatomy. Surgeons viewed septoplasty as a complex although routine operation, which is not guaranteed to improve symptoms of nasal obstruction. Some patients saw septoplasty, intuitively, as a ‘fix’ for a bent septum, whereas others were keen to avoid surgery if possible. Healthcare professionals welcomed the increased use of standard measurements if these were shown to provide a reliable guide to patient outcomes. However, they felt that it was important to retain an element of clinical judgement. Despite generally good outcomes from septoplasty, some patients still felt they had received little to no benefit from the operation. Patients also reported being underprepared for postsurgery recovery. Experiences were more varied with medical management, with some experiencing symptom improvement, but others discontinuing treatment due to difficulty or pain using the sprays, or perceived ineffectiveness. Remembering to use the sprays could be perceived as burdensome, although most patients were able to incorporate this into their daily routines.

Our qualitative study demonstrated varied individual experiences among patients undergoing septoplasty and medical management. Surgeons welcomed more standard measurements to guide decision-making for septoplasty. For patients, better information about treatment mechanisms, treatment delivery and aftercare, and the development of decision support tools would enable shared decision-making and help to provide optimal patient experience of the treatments.

ISRCTN16168569.

The selection of the optimal treatment strategy remains one of the most challenging decisions in the management of coronary artery disease (CAD). Surgical and percutaneous coronary revascularisation are two widely used treatments for managing CAD and can result in improved outcomes compared with medications alone. Current practice guidelines recommend revascularisation for multivessel CAD for most patients. However, there remains uncertainty about whether revascularisation or medical therapy is optimal for managing multivessel disease for many patients, especially, in the elderly and those living with multimorbidity. Also, there is limited understanding of patient preferences towards candidate treatment options for multivessel disease. This study aims to quantify and characterise heterogeneity in patient preferences towards treatment options for multivessel CAD.

We have designed and will administer a discrete choice experiment to elicit and quantify preferences of people with multivessel CAD towards revascularisation and optimal medical therapy for managing multivessel CAD. Multinomial logit mixed effects and hierarchical Bayes models will be used to model the association between the participants’ choices and the attributes and their different levels. The relative importance of the attributes will be assessed using the size of coefficients and marginal rate of substitution (MRS), a measure of the willingness to accept a trade-off among different options. Heterogeneity in patient preferences will be evaluated using latent class analysis.

Ethical approval for this study was granted by the University of Calgary Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board. Findings from this study will inform the development of clinical decision support tool that integrates patient preferences with clinical risk information to support patient-care provider discussion about optimal treatment for multivessel CAD management.

Paediatric cervical spine injury (CSI) is uncommon but can have devastating consequences. Many children, however, present to emergency departments (EDs) for the assessment of possible CSI. While imaging can be used to determine the presence of injuries, these tests are not without risks and costs, including exposure to radiation and associated life-time cancer risks. Clinical decision rules (CDRs) to guide imaging decisions exist, although two of the existing rules, the National Emergency X-Radiography Low Risk Criteria and the Canadian C-Spine Rule (CCR), focus on adults and a newly developed paediatric rule from the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) is yet to be externally validated. This study aims to externally validate these three CDRs in children.

This is a multicentre prospective observational study of children younger than 16 years presenting with possible CSI following blunt trauma to 1 of 14 EDs across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Data will be collected on presenting features (history, injury mechanism, physical examination findings) and management (diagnostic imaging, admission, interventions, outcomes). The performance accuracy (sensitivity, specificity, negative and positive predictive values) of three existing CDRs in identifying children with study-defined CSIs and the specific CDR defined outcomes will be determined, along with multiple secondary outcomes including CSI epidemiology, investigations and management of possible CSI.

Ethics approval for the study was received from the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne Human Research Ethics Committee in Australia (HREC/69436/RCHM-2020) with additional approvals from the New Zealand Human and Disability Ethics Committee and the SingHealth Centralised Institutional Review Board. Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and future management guidelines.

Registration with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry prior to the commencement of participant recruitment (ACTRN12621001050842). 50% of expected patients have been enrolled to date.

The enteric microbiota drives inflammation in Crohn’s disease. Yet, there are no placebo controlled trials evaluating the efficacy and safety of faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) in inducing and maintaining remission in patients with active Crohn’s disease. The Microbial Restoration (MIRO) study aims to establish this evidence.

At two specialist inflammatory bowel disease centres, 120 enrolled patients will have a 3-week period of diet optimisation (removal of ultra-processed foods) together with a 7-day course of antibiotics (to facilitate subsequent FMT engraftment). Patients will then be stratified to upper gut (for disease proximal to the splenic flexure) or lower gut (distal to the splenic flexure) disease. Patients will then be randomised in a 2:1 ratio to receive anaerobically prepared stool or placebo for 8 weeks either by gastroscopy, or colonoscopy and enemas. Clinical response at 8 weeks (Crohn’s Disease Activity Index (CDAI) reduction ≥100 points or to 70) receive FMT for weeks 8–16.

Patients achieving clinical response from FMT after 8 or 16 weeks will be randomised in a 1:1 ratio to either a 44-week maintenance phase of FMT or placebo. Patients will receive FMT from one donor throughout the study.

The MIRO study will establish whether FMT is an effective and safe therapy to induce and maintain remission in patients with active Crohn’s disease.

Ethical approval has been received by the St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC-A 084/21). The results will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals and presented at international conferences.

ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04970446; Registered on 20 July 2021.

Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) infects approximately two-thirds of the global population under the age of 50 years. Although widely prevalent, the possible implications of HSV-1 in neurodegenerative diseases, especially dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, remain poorly understood. This review seeks to elucidate this association and explore the potential benefits of preventing or treating herpesvirus infections on dementia risk. The goal is to enhance our understanding of HSV-1’s potential role in dementia, which could inform the development of future therapeutic interventions for these conditions.

PubMed, Embase (Elsevier/Ovid), Web of Science, Scopus, Global Health, PsycInfo, Cochrane Library and Clinicaltrials.gov will be searched from the inception of each respective database. Studies that have HSV-1 as an exposure and dementia, or its subtypes, as a primary outcome will be included. Two researchers will independently screen titles, abstracts and full texts, with discrepancies resolved by a third researcher. Systematic data extraction from eligible studies will be performed using a standardised template. Risk of bias of individual studies will be assessed with the Cochrane Collaboration approach. We will assess the overall quality of cumulative evidence using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations criteria. Statistical analysis will employ a random effects model, and heterogeneity will be determined with Cochrane’s Q test and assessed using I². Studies will be grouped by population subgroups and dementia subtypes when possible to explore nuances in results. We will consider performing meta-regression if heterogeneity remains after subgroup analyses. All statistical analyses will be conducted using Stata V.18 software (College Station, Texas, USA).

No ethical approval is required since data will be collected from existing studies. The review will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publication and at national and international conferences.

CRD42024516789.