Clinical Epidemiology and Global Health (Nov 2023)
Implementation research on diabetes in India: A systematic review
Abstract
Background: There is a wide range of effective interventions for the prevention of diabetes, but few of these approaches have been extensively utilized in real-world settings. The objective of this systematic review was to assess and collate existing evidence in implementation research (IR) on prevention, control and treatment of Diabetes Mellitus (DM) in India. Methods: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses - Protocol (PRISMA-P) guidelines were used to create the protocol for the systematic review. Articles published in the previous 20 years (2001–2020) and published in English language were included in the study. Electronic databases such as MEDLINE (through PubMed gateway), EMBASE, and Science Direct; search engines like Google scholar and ProQuest were systematically searched using separate search protocols for each database. Retrieved articles were screened for titles and abstracts and assessed by two independent reviewers. Using standard checklists, the articles also underwent a risk of bias assessment, and a narrative summary was written using SWiM guidelines. Results: Sixteen studies were included in the review, which included three implementation studies related to screening of diabetes, three studies on the management of diabetes, three studies related to lifestyle interventions, one on behavioral intervention, two on electronic support system-based interventions, and the remaining four studies explored IR in other areas of diabetes. The key attributes of implementation research such as acceptability, feasibility, adoption, economic evaluation measures like cost-effectiveness, operational issues like barriers, and facilitating factors were addressed by most of the studies, in varying extents. Conclusion: Implementation research on diabetes mellitus in India is very limited which underscores the importance of creating awareness about the need of IR and building capacity and skills for conducting IR among various stakeholders.
