ArticleBMJ open2025
Burden of anxiety, depression and stress among older adults living in South-East Asia: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Article in BMJ open, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Prevalence of depression among rural older adults in Asia: a meta-analysis of observational studies.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionDepression, anxiety and stress are major contributors to the global burden of diseases. The ageing population faces an escalating burden of these conditions, and half of the cases are largely undiagnosed. Yet a paucity of epidemiological data limits understanding the full scope of the disease burden among older adults. This protocol outlines a systematic review to estimate the prevalence and incidence of anxiety, depression and stress among older people (60 years and above) and to identify contributing factors across South-East Asian countries. METHOD AND ANALYSIS: A study protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis has been registered in PROSPERO. The research team will systematically search, appraise and synthesise observational studies following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Comprehensive searches will be conducted from inception to May 2025 across PubMed (NCBI), MEDLINE (Ovid), Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Scopus (Elsevier) and PsycINFO (APA), supplemented by grey literature from government reports, the WHO Library and Google Scholar. Two investigators will independently screen titles and abstracts, review full-text articles published in the English language and extract data, with discrepancies resolved by a third reviewer. Methodological quality and risk of bias of the included studies will be assessed using standardised tools. Primary outcomes are the prevalence and incidence of depression, anxiety and stress. Secondary outcomes include variations in the prevalence and incidence of these conditions based on sociodemographic factors, as well as associated risk factors that differ across regional contexts. Data will be pooled via meta-analysis where feasible or narratively synthesised if heterogeneity precludes quantitative synthesis. The systematic review will provide a comprehensive understanding of the burden of anxiety, depression and stress among older people in South-East Asia. This novel evidence will guide policymakers and healthcare practitioners in developing targeted interventions and generating essential evidence for supporting policy development in the region. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval will not be required as this study will not involve collection of original data. The findings will be disseminated through publications in a peer-reviewed journal and presentations at scientific conferences. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42024609033.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.