LAUSR

Introduction Medicines are becoming increasingly common for all populations and polypharmacy has been shown to have numerous risks. Although primary studies and reviews have explored the impact of medical conditions on patients and caregivers, there are no known reviews on the impact of medicines on paediatric patients. This systematic review therefore aimed to determine the domains commonly assessed in studies assessing treatment burden in different conditions for paediatric patients and their caregivers. Methods Searches were conducted on Medline, CINAHL, EMBASE, Web of Science and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews to find relevant papers. Two reviewers independently screened the papers based on the chosen inclusion and exclusion criteria. The quality of the papers was assessed independently by two reviewers using the Newcastle Ottawa Scale. This review was registered with PROSPERO (PROSPERO registration number: CRD42021285097) and conducted according to PRISMA methodology. Results 6 papers with 8276 participants were identified in this review. The domains most commonly assessed were the perceived effectiveness of medications (4/6 studies), psychosocial impact (3/6 studies) and the impact on work and school (3/6 studies). Other domains included the ease of use of medicines, side effects from medicines, adherence to medicines, time requirements, costs, using healthcare resources and support from family/friends/organisations. Conclusions Studies assessing the burden of care due to medicines assessed a range of domains related to the impact of medicines on patients and caregivers. The results from this review will be used create a questionnaire for a cohort study that aims to determine the impact of polypharmacy on paediatric patients and their parents.