Rehabilitation approaches for children living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa: a protocol for scoping review

BACKGROUND: A large number of children living with chronic conditions such as HIV experience impairments and disabilities. Current sub-Saharan African healthcare systems are challenged with paediatric care that does not integrate rehabilitation into management of chronic diseases such as HIV. Furthermore, little attention is paid to societal inclusion, community engagement and educational needs of these children. Integration of paediatric care and rehabilitation in a holistic approach can help to overcome the challenges associated with living disabilities. This scoping review proposes a synthesis of existing evidence on rehabilitation intervention strategies to increase functioning and to address disability-related barriers in children living with HIV and disability in sub-Saharan Africa. METHODS: A scoping review will be conducted to systematically map evidence on rehabilitation intervention for children living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. Studies in sub-Saharan Africa from December 2012 to 2019 on rehabilitation interventions for children aged 5 to 10 years living with HIV will be included in the review. Peer-reviewed primary studies, as well as grey literature, will be identified from electronic databases including Google Scholar; PubMed; Medline; CINAHL and Cochrane. The search strings using keywords such as “HIV”, “impairment”, “disability”, “neurocognitive impairment”, “behavioural”, “rehabilitation” and “intervention” will be conducted using Boolean logic. Two groups of independent reviewers will conduct all title, abstract and full article screening. The study selection process will be mapped using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews. A predesigned data-charting table will supplement the extraction of data. NVIVO software will aide in the thematic analysis of the data. DISCUSSION: The information from studies will be discussed in relation to the research questions using a critical narrative to explore the emergent themes. The quality of studies will be appraised using the mixed method appraisal tool. The scoping review will provide a baseline of evidence on rehabilitation interventions for children living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. The scoping review will inform healthcare providers, scholars and policy developers about the current use of rehabilitation interventions and what gaps need to be addressed with further research and intervention development. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: OSF Center for Open Science: https://osf.io/ed7zb/