PROTOCOL: Interventions for Rehabilitation to Improve Self-Management in Disabling Conditions: An Overview of Systematic Reviews

Background Rehabilitation should enable people with health conditions to look after their own health beyond supervised care; however, self-management evidence is fragmented across conditions, interventions and outcomes. Objectives To synthesise and map evidence on the effectiveness of interventions for rehabilitation versus inactive controls on self-management, operationalised as ICF d570 “Looking after one’s health”, in 29 conditions listed by the WHO Package of Interventions for Rehabilitation or WHO Rehabilitation Need Estimator. Methods This overview follows Cochrane Handbook Chapter V and PRIOR. We will search MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, ERIC, Web of Science, Cochrane Library and Campbell Systematic Reviews for English-language reviews published or updated since 2021. Eligible reviews must include randomised or non-randomised studies, compare rehabilitation with no intervention, sham/placebo or waiting list, report GRADE certainty for self-management, and achieve at least moderate confidence on a modified AMSTAR 2. Two reviewers will independently select reviews, extract data and appraise quality. One review per PICO will populate an Overview Reporting Map showing direction of effect and certainty of evidence; overlap will be quantified by corrected covered area. Equity will be explored using PROGRESS-Plus. Implications Findings will inform the WHO Global Status Report on Rehabilitation and identify evidence gaps.