JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Understanding mild behavioral impairment, a relatively recent notion in neuropsychological studies, provides significant insights into early behavioral indicators of cognitive decline and predicts the onset of dementia in older adults. While the importance of understanding mild behavioral impairment is acknowledged, comprehensive reviews of its correlates with older adults are limited.

Objective:

This scoping review aims to identify the impact of mild behavioral impairment on health outcomes in older adults and the factors associated with mild behavioral impairment.

Methods:

The review will adhere to the Joanna Briggs Institute’s methodological principles for scoping reviews. We will include studies focusing mainly on mild behavioral impairment in older adults, with the literature on this topic being limited to the period from 2003 to the present. Other clinical diagnoses, such as cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis, will not be included. We will use databases including PubMed (MEDLINE), CINAHL, Web of Science, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Cochrane, and SCOPUS for relevant articles published in English. Both gray literature and peer-reviewed articles will be considered during screening. Three independent reviewers will extract data using a predefined data extraction tool. Extracted data will be presented using tables, figures, and a narrative summary aligned with review questions, accompanied by an analysis of study characteristics and categorization of mild behavioral impairment correlates.

Results:

The results will be presented as a descriptive summary, structured around the health outcomes and associated factors related to mild behavioral impairment, and additional data on study characteristics will be presented in tabular format. An exploratory search was conducted in July 2023 to establish a comprehensive search strategy, and iterative refinements to the scoping review protocol and formalizing of methods were completed. A follow-up search is planned for May 2024, with the aim of submitting the findings for publication in peer-reviewed journals.

Conclusions:

To our knowledge, this would be the first study to map the literature on the health associated factors and outcomes of mild behavioral impairment. The findings will support the development of interventions to prevent the occurrence of mild behavioral impairment and mitigate the negative outcomes of mild behavioral impairment.