Migration influences on the allostatic load of children: Systematic review protocol.
Author: Gomez, I. N., Lai, C. Y., Yung, T. W., Chan, C. C., & Tsang, H. W.
Journal: Journal of Medical Internet Research Research Protocols
Abstract:
Background
Migration is a worldwide phenomenon in recent times. Recently, documented studies
suggest that the change in environments involved in migration may have an influence on
children’s allostatic load related to health and well-being.
Objective
The aim of this review is to systematically search the extant literature and critically
examine the evidence on how migration affects allostatic load in children and describe
the relevant methods in measuring allostatic load.
Methods
A systematic review will be conducted to recapitulate the evidence on the influence of
migration on allostatic load and describe the methods employed in measuring allostatic
load parameters among migrant children using the following search terms
combinations: 1) allostasis OR allostatic OR allostatic load OR allosta*; 2) migration
OR migrant OR immigration OR immigrant OR migra* OR *migra*; and 3) children
OR child* OR adolescen*. We will search for peer-reviewed articles in English using a
three-step process: title and abstract review, individual article review, and reference
hand-searching among the following databases: Medline, CINAHL, ProQuest,
PubMed, Science Direct and BioMed Central. Two independent review authors will
analyze for data quality, level of evidence and risk of bias; a third review author will be
consulted if consensus cannot be met. Data on study details, participant characteristics,
allostatic load operationalization and description, methods, and results summary will be
extracted. Evidence will be synthesized statistically when possible and narratively
clustered into themes.
Results
At present, we have conducted only a preliminary search to test out our search terms.
The systematic search, appraisal, synthesis and analysis will be finished by June 2018. It
is projected that the manuscript that describes the systematic review will be available
by the last quarter of 2018.
Conclusions
The results of this systematic review have implications on supporting the concept of
allostasis as a mechanism underlying the adaptive processes related to migration.
Furthermore, our findings can lead to the development of innovative evidence-informed
evaluation and intervention programs aimed at migrant children’s needs. Likewise, it is
hoped that this review can be an impetus to inform health and sociopolitical policies
responsive of migrant children’s current contexts.
Trial Registration.
International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO):
CRD42017068895;
https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=68895 (Archived
by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6wprRkxvA)