Table 4 Study eligibility criteria

From: Systematic review and meta-analysis of standalone digital interventions for cognitive symptoms in people without dementia

Inclusion criteria

Exclusion criteria

▪ Randomised controlled trials

▪ Standalone digital interventions targeting cognitive symptoms

▪ Self-guided*

▪ Adult (≥18 years) populations with cognitive symptoms

▪ Compared with a control condition either inactive (treatment as usual or waitlist) or active (sham or traditional face-to-face therapy)

▪ Symptoms measured at post-treatment

▪ Minimum of 10 patients in each group

▪ Peer-reviewed

▪ Quasi-randomized studies or other than RCT

▪ Populations with a dementia diagnosis

▪ Major psychiatric disorders (e.g. schizophrenia)

▪ Not digital therapies

▪ Interventions requiring therapist guidance to deliver the treatment

▪ No cognitive outcomes assessed (e.g. imaging or EEG exclusively)

▪ Digital tools focusing on assessments of cognitive function without delivering treatment content

▪ Studies comparing two digital rehabilitative strategies without a control group

▪ Blended interventions (i.e. combined experimental intervention with any other form of intervention), unless the added intervention was provided in a standardised manner to both experimental and control groups

  1. *Self-guided interventions require patients to independently engage with the intervention, while contact with therapists is only allowed at the start and/or completion of the intervention, and for sporadic telephone support, but not for the delivery of the intervention.
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