Prevalence of oculomotor, binocular vision anomalies and refractive error among children with cerebral palsy in WHO South-East Asia: A protocol of systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Introduction: Children with cerebral palsy (CP) may experience a variety of visual abnormalities, which might hamper their daily activities. Most physical therapy for the CP population focuses on visual aspects, which postpone rehabilitation outcomes. Considering the significance of vision to the CP community, we aimed to conduct a systematic review of the prevalence of ocular abnormalities such as oculomotor abnormalities, refractive errors, and binocular vision anomalies in children with Cerebral palsy in the absence of eye injury in WHO South-East Asia region.

Methods & analysis: This systematic review and meta-analysis protocol are reported as per the PRISMA- P and MOOSE guidelines. A complete search strategy will be framed using MeSH terms and the opinion of the subject expert. A detailed search on PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Scopus, Web of Science and CINHAL will be carried out to retract the data on the prevalence of visual problems in the CP population (age< 18 years), published in English between January 2010 and 2024. Covidence software will be used to manage data, screen records and extract the information. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale will be used to evaluate the listed studies quality and risk of bias. RevMan V.5 will be used to analyse the data.

Keywords: A protocol of systematic review and meta-analysis; Cerebral palsy; Oculomotor dysfunction; Pursuits; Refractive error; Saccades; Visual function.

Graphical abstract

Fig. 1

PRISMA 2020 flow diagram. The graphic depicts the method of study selection for this systematic review. The PRISMA 2020 requirements for transparency and replicability in reporting are followed, with each box indicating the number of records at each stage and explanations for any exclusions. *Reporting the number of records found in each database or register searched (rather than the total number across all databases/registers).