Purpose: The objective of this paper is to design a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis on the effectiveness of self-management interventions in patients with chronic heart failure.
Methods: The protocol is developed following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The protocol has been registered in PROSPERO (CRD42021246973). Base on the population, intervention, comparator, and outcome (PICO) framework, our research questions are: 1) What are the effects of eHealth self-management interventions on patients with chronic heart failure? 2) What factors of interventions might affect outcomes? The process includes: 1) search strategy and inclusion criteria; 2) data extraction; 3) risk of bias assessment and 4) data analysis. Searching process and data extraction will be guided by Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. We will use Cochrane Risk of Bias tool to assess the risk of bias. The data analysis will be performed using Metafor package in R.
Conclusions: This systemic review will synthesize the current evidence and identify gaps. Findings in the meta-analysis will provide guidance for designing a more effective self-management intervention for patients with chronic heart failure in future.