Abstract
IntroductionMassage is a popularly used complementary and alternative therapy. Previous randomised controlled trials have examined the effects of massage on children, and several systematic reviews have been conducted to synthesise these data. This study aims to assess and summarise the current evidence from published systematic reviews of controlled clinical trials on the practice of paediatric massage, specifically in infants and children aged < 5 years.MethodsThe online databases MEDLINE, Embase, Health Technology Assessment Database, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Database of s of Reviews of Effects, Allied and Complementary Medicine, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Wanfang Data will be searched from the inception onwards for evidence of the treatment effects. We will include systematic reviews of randomised control trials evaluating the effects and safety of massage therapy in infants and children aged < 5 years. The primary outcomes will be any physical or psychological outcome, and adverse effects on children. Secondary outcomes will include any physical or psychological outcome on caregivers. Two reviewers will independently screen the articles for inclusion as per the eligibility criteria. They will extract information from the included studies and assess the methodological quality of the included studies. A table will be used to summarise of information of the included studies, which includes the basic information, method and findings. The methodological quality of the included systematic reviews will be assessed by A Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews version 2 (AMSTAR 2). Extracted data from the included studies will be collected and presented using narrative approach. The pooled effect estimates for meta-analysed outcomes will be extracted when possible. If there is a discrepancy in results of two or more reviews on the same topic, then the causes of such discrepancy will be further explored.DiscussionThis overview of systematic reviews will summarise the current evidence on massage, specifically for infants and children aged < 5 years. We will comprehensively present the positive effects and adverse effects of this intervention. Findings from this overview will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.Systematic review registrationCRD42020186003.
Highlights
Massage is a popularly used complementary and alternative therapy
Some paediatric massage types have their specific theoretical system, such as paediatric tuina, which is an independent modality of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapies and is based on TCM meridian theories
We designed this overview of systematic reviews to further summarise the existing evidence of massage for the conditions of infants and children aged < 5 years. This overview of systematic reviews aims to summarise the existing evidence on the treatment effects and safety of massage therapy in infants and children aged < 5 years. This protocol of overview of systematic reviews is being reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) [48]
Summary
This protocol of overview of systematic reviews is being reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) [48] (see checklist in Additional file 1). Data collection and analysis Selection of reviews Two authors (SCC and CSY) will independently screen the results of the electronic search by title and abstract For both objectives, we will obtain the full-text report of the systematic reviews and studies deemed appropriate and uncertain, and subsequently apply the PICOTSS eligibility criteria to determine the final inclusion list. 2. Systematic review characteristics (reported strategies to search literature, number of databases searched and date of last search, any restrictions (e.g. language, geographic or date), objective(s), inclusion/exclusion criteria, intervention(s) of interest and comparators, target condition, patient population, main outcomes of interest, type of study designs included, number of studies reporting data for meta-analyses (when appropriate), effect metric(s) reported (e.g. risk ratio), methods to assess study risk of bias, statistical methods to combine studies 3. The mechanism of adverse effects of therapies for several conditions might be similar in different
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