What are the effects of psychosocial interventions for children and adolescents living in low- and middle-income countries affected by humanitarian crises?

Abstract Background: According to the World Health Organization, depression is expected to be the largest contributor to the global disease burden by 2030. Depression is the most frequent cause of emotional distress and reduced quality of life among older people affecting over 12% of the individuals aged 65 or older, . Psychosocial interventions have been proven to be effective in the management of depression. Most of the available evidence is from high income settings, with paucity of information in low and middle income countries which carry the biggest burden of depression and other health challenges. In this systematic review, we will document evidence on psychosocial interventions that have been effective in treatment of depression among elderly people in low and middle income countries. Methods: The review will be conducted and reported in accordance to the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) statement. We will include journal articles that have documented the psychosocial interventions in the primary prevention of depressive symptoms in elderly people aged 60 or older. We will also include accessible grey literature about the topic. We will include articles that have documented the psychosocial interventions to address depression in elderly patients in low and middle income countries. We will search different search engines and data bases including PubMed, EMBASE, Psych-INFO, Cochrane Library. We will use a meta-analysis, should we find that there is no heterogeneity between included studies.Discussion: This protocol describes a planned systematic review of observational studies reporting psychosocial interventions in the management of depressive symptoms in elderly people aged 60 or older. We anticipate that once this review is complete and published, our findings will be of interest to the elderly with depressive symptoms, their families and caregivers, students, and other healthcare professionals, scientists and policy makers. Systematic review registration: This protocol will not be registered with PROSPERO International prospective register of systematic reviews since the system is no longer accepting new protocols.

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Examining the use of economic evaluations in health-related humanitarian programmes in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review

Health Policy and Planning ◽

10.1093/heapol/czz144 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 35 (2) ◽

pp. 210-218 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Lizna A Makhani ◽

Valerie Moran ◽

Zia Sadique ◽

Neha S Singh ◽

Paul Revill ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Economic Evaluation ◽

Bibliographic Databases ◽

Economic Evaluations ◽

Middle Income ◽

System Perspective ◽

Middle Income Countries ◽

Humanitarian Crises ◽

Health Related ◽

Low And Middle Income

Abstract The costly nature of health sector responses to humanitarian crises and resource constraints means that there is a need to identify methods for priority setting and long-term planning. One method is economic evaluation. The aim of this systematic review is to examine the use of economic evaluations in health-related humanitarian programmes in low- and middle-income countries. This review used peer-reviewed literature published between January 1980 and June 2018 extracted from four main electronic bibliographic databases. The eligibility criteria were full economic evaluations (which compare the costs and outcomes of at least two interventions and provide information on efficiency) of health-related services in humanitarian crises in low- and middle-countries. The quality of eligible studies is appraised using the modified 36-question Drummond checklist. From a total of 8127 total studies, 11 full economic evaluations were identified. All economic evaluations were cost-effectiveness analyses. Three of the 11 studies used a provider perspective, 2 studies used a healthcare system perspective, 3 studies used a societal perspective and 3 studies did not specify the perspective used. The lower quality studies failed to provide 7information on the unit of costs and did not justify the time horizon of costs and discount rates, or conduct a sensitivity analysis. There was limited geographic range of the studies, with 9 of the 11 studies conducted in Africa. Recommendations include greater use of economic evaluation methods and data to enhance the microeconomic understanding of health interventions in humanitarian settings to support greater efficiency and transparency and to strengthen capacity by recruiting economists and providing training in economic methods to humanitarian agencies.

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