Content and outcome of non-pharmacological rehabilitation in hospital, or community-based care, for women with traumatic brain injury: a scoping review protocol

Introduction: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a global health issue and a leading cause of long-term disabilities and mortality worldwide. There is growing evidence that TBI rehabilitation should be differentiated and individualised according to gender to provide more effective healthcare and rehabilitation. However, there is a lack of reviews focusing on the rehabilitation for women with TBI and there is a need to summarise existing knowledge to guide and individualise their rehabilitation. This scoping review aims to identify and map evidence on content and outcome of non-pharmacological rehabilitation for women with TBI aged below 65 years.

Methods and analysis: This scoping review will follow the methodological guidelines of the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) and reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR). The databases searched will be PubMed, CINAHL and PsycINFO. The following inclusion criteria will be applied: peer-reviewed studies published in English over the years 2000-2024 including description of content and outcomes of non-pharmacological TBI rehabilitation for women aged between 16 and 65 years in both inpatient and outpatient contexts. All severities of TBI ranging from concussion through to extremely severe will be included. Text and opinion papers, conference abstracts and grey literature will be excluded. Studies fulfilling the inclusion criteria will be independently reviewed by three researchers. A data extraction form will be used including specific details about the participants, concept, context, study methods and key findings. The results will be presented in tabular format accompanied by a narrative summary.

Ethics and dissemination: Due to the nature of data, no approval from an ethics committee is required. Dissemination of results are planned in an open-access peer-reviewed journal and in professional networks.

Review registration number: OSF, https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/QUY3T.