Early Interventions Following the Death of a Parent: Protocol of a Mixed Methods Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: Previous meta-analyses examined the effectiveness of interventions for bereaved children showing small to moderate effect sizes. However, no mixed methods systematic review was conducted on bereavement interventions following the loss of a parent focusing on the time since death in regard to the prevention of grief complications. OBJECTIVE: The overall purpose of the review is to provide a rigorous synthesis of early intervention after parental death in childhood. Specifically, the aims are twofold: (1) to determine the rationales, contents, timeframes, and outcomes of early bereavement care interventions for children and/or their parents and (2) to assess the quality of current early intervention studies. METHODS: Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods intervention studies that start intervention with parentally bereaved children (and/or their parents) up to 6 months postloss will be included in the review. The search strategy was based on the Population, Interventions, Comparator, Outcomes, and Study Designs (PICOS) approach, and it was devised together with a university librarian. The literature searches will be carried out in the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE), PsycINFO, Excerpta Medica Database (EMBASE), and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL). The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool will be used to appraise the quality of eligible studies. All data will be narratively synthetized following the Guidance on the Conduct of Narrative Synthesis in Systematic Reviews. RESULTS: The systematic review is ongoing and the data search has started. The review is expected to be completed by the end of 2017. Findings will be submitted to leading journals for publication. CONCLUSIONS: In accordance with the current diagnostic criteria for prolonged grief as well as the users’ perspectives literature, this systematic review outlines a possible sensitive period for early intervention following the death of a parent. The hereby presented protocol ensures the groundwork and transparency for the process of conducting the systematic review. TRIAL REGISTRATION: International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) CRD42017064077; http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.asp?ID=CRD42017064077 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6rMq6F0fv)