Effectiveness of Virtual Reality in Supporting Informal Caregivers: A Protocol for a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

This is the protocol for a Campbell systematic review. The objectives are as follows: to synthesize the existing evidence on the effectiveness of virtual reality (VR) interventions in supporting informal caregivers across outcomes including caregiver burden, stress, depression, anxiety, quality of life, self-efficacy, and skills acquisition. The review will compare VR interventions to usual care, waitlist control, or active control conditions. Eligible study designs include randomized controlled trials, quasi-experimental studies, and pre-post studies published in English. A comprehensive search strategy will be implemented across multiple electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, CINAHL, MEDLINE, CENTRAL via the Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, and Scopus) from inception to June 2026, supplemented by searches of gray literature, clinical trial registries, and reference lists. The review follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and is registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) (Registration Number: CRD42025634474). Covidence software will be used for screening, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool 2 (RoB 2) for randomized controlled trials and the Risk of Bias in Non-randomized Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I) tool for non-randomized studies. If appropriate, a meta-analysis will be conducted using random-effects models, and the certainty of evidence will be assessed using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations (GRADE) approach. The findings will inform future research and practice regarding VR-based caregiver support.