The Lived Experiences of Children Who Have Undergone Kidney Replacement Therapy and Their Families: Protocol for a Qualitative Systematic Review
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background: In many high-income countries, 5 to 10 children per million of the age-related population start kidney replacement therapy (KRT), which includes both dialysis (peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis) and kidney transplantation (KT) for end-stage kidney disease. After peritoneal dialysis is introduced, or after KT, self-care at home typically becomes the main focus. Providing support for each developmental stage and transition period in the treatment process from dialysis to KT is an urgent issue. Objective: This review aims to synthesize the lived experiences of children undergoing KRT and their families. We will use identified themes to develop a self-care program aimed at solving the life tasks of children and their families. Methods: A search strategy will follow the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology and will be conducted in 3 steps: an initial limited search, a comprehensive database search, and a reference search of the included articles. MEDLINE (EBSCO), CINAHL Plus, and PsycINFO will be searched with no restriction on language or publication dates. The study selection, critical appraisal, data extraction, and data synthesis will be performed according to Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines for systematic reviews of qualitative research. Final synthesis will be assessed using the ConQual (confidence in the output of qualitative research synthesis) approach. Results: The review will include studies focusing on the experiences of children with KRT and their families. These experiences include physical, mental, and social issues, hygiene care, diet, fluid intake, medication, strict infection prevention, delays in growth and development, restrictions on social life, and a lack of social resources. This is an important issue because after starting dialysis, or after KT, many children are treated at home and experience these issues in their local communities and homes. As of May 2025, the authors have conducted 2 pilot searches to test and refine keywords of results with the help of the librarian and have identified 1003 studies for screening in MEDLINE. This systematic review is scheduled to be completed by April 2026. Conclusions: This systematic review synthesizes qualitative evidence regarding the daily life experiences of children and their families after initiating KRT, contributing to the development of a self-care program that enhances their quality of life.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.119 | 0.088 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.005 | 0.005 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.009 | 0.010 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.012 | 0.010 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.008 | 0.007 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.007 | 0.010 |
| Open science | 0.007 | 0.009 |
| Research integrity | 0.007 | 0.008 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.049 | 0.005 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".