Table 1 Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

Population

Adult participants with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease, with or without their carers

Atypical Parkinsonism; articles where Parkinson’s disease data was indistinguishable from other conditions.

Diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease is widely reported based on the UK Parkinson’s Disease Society Brain Bank Diagnostic Criteria, requiring diagnosis of a parkinsonian syndrome, exclusion of other causes, and supportive features [13].

Carers have been shown to have an important role in management and supporting self-management of Parkinson’s disease [14] so were included to represent the care partnership.

Intervention

Self-management interventions

Interventions that train or were based on the individual utilising skills to manage “the symptoms, treatment, physical and psychological consequences and lifestyle changes inherent in living with a chronic condition” [15]

Comparator

Any

Outcome

Any

Due to heterogeneity of Parkinson’s disease and targets of the self-management interventions, a range of primary outcome measures were anticipated and so included. The outcomes considered to be the ‘patient important outcomes’ for these interventions are Quality of Life (QoL), wellbeing and function (Activities of Daily Living) so are considered in more detail in this review.

Studies

Original quantitative studies

Expert opinions, letter to the editor, case-reports, editorials, reviews, conference abstracts without full report, and qualitative studies.

Qualitative data has been synthesised elsewhere [14].

The search was not restricted by date or language, but articles were not included if the full text was not available in English language.