Social participation experiences of older adults with an early-onset physical disability: a systematic review protocol

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this review is to assess and synthesize the available qualitative evidence on the experiences of social participation of older adults with an early-onset physical disability.

Introduction: Understanding the experiences of social participation among older adults with a physical disability acquired earlier in life can guide the development of interventions and policies. It will also help with fostering meaningful community participation and aid in improving the quality of their social participation.

Inclusion criteria: This review will consider primary studies that explore the experiences of social participation of older adults with an early-onset physical disability. The review will focus on qualitative data, including methods such as phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, action research, and feminist research. Studies in French or English will be considered for inclusion, and there will be no limitation on publication dates.

Methods: A keyword search strategy will be carried out in MEDLINE (Ovid), PsycINFO (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCOhost), Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest) will be searched for unpublished articles. Two independent reviewers will perform the screening and inclusion process, assess the quality of the evidence, and complete data extraction. The JBI approach to critical appraisal, study selection, data extraction, and data synthesis (meta-aggregation) will be used. The ConQual approach will be used to establish confidence in the synthesized findings.