Service coverage and health workforce allocation strategies for geriatric and palliative care in low- and middle-income countries A protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Advances in medical science coupled with increased people's income results an elevated average of life expectancy even in the resource poor countries. The growing number of aged population, however, has drawn little attention in health system discourse of low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). Nevertheless, ensuring availability of appropriate service and properly trained and skilled health workforce is an absolute necessity for a functional geriatric and palliative healthcare. Given the lack of specialist geriatricians in LMICs contexts, there are other health workforce strategies that might be effective in building a proper health system response to this growing demand. Therefore, we aimed to identify and synthesize evidence on the existing health workforce-related strategies taken to provide geriatric and palliative care in LMICs. Methods: We will follow the recommendations provided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist. Following the PRISMA guidelines, we will search the Medline/PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Cochrane database from January 2011 to December 2021 using a comprehensive search strategy. Two independent reviewers will screen the title and abstracts text using the specified inclusion and exclusion criteria. For the finally included articles, full manuscripts will be retrieved, and reviewers will appraise and extract data using standardized form independently. The third reviewer will resolve any disagreements appear in the process. The findings of the review be synthesized using the narrative synthesis approach to analyse descriptive quantitative and qualitative data. Furthermore, meta-analysis will be done provided that the data meet certain requirement as per Cochrane guideline. Rayyan software will be used to manage and synthesize data. Revman software will be used to do meta-analysis, if data support. Results: Findings of this review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Conclusion: This systematic review will identify the existing effective strategies taken to provide geriatric and palliative care, in LMICs.