Long-Term Care Quality Indicators for Older Adults in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Scoping Review Protocol

This is the prospectively registered protocol for a scoping review on long-term care (LTC) quality indicators for older adults in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The review will be conducted by Navish Aleem, Corinna Schönweiss, Franziska Zúñiga, and Michael Simon at the Institute of Nursing Science, University of Basel, following PRISMA-ScR guidelines and the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology for scoping reviews.

Aim. To map existing structure, process, and outcome quality indicators for long-term care of older adults across global and LMIC contexts, organising them using the WHO Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) framework and WHO quality-of-care domains for older adults, and to identify barriers, enablers, and gaps relevant to LMIC implementation.

Population, Concept, Context. Older adults (≥60 years) receiving any form of long-term care; quality indicators framed by Donabedian structure, process, and outcome; any LTC setting worldwide, with emphasis on LMICs.

Methods. We will search PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, and the Cochrane Library (2016–2026), all languages, supplemented by grey literature and hand-searching. Records will be screened in Covidence by two independent reviewers, with disagreements adjudicated by a third reviewer. Data will be charted on a standardised form and synthesised descriptively and narratively, organised by ICOPE / WHO quality-of-care domains. No meta-analysis is planned.

This protocol is registered prospectively to support reproducibility and reduce the risk of duplication. Amendments will be tracked as versioned updates of this Zenodo record.