Study selection

Following the searches, a multi-step review process was used to select publications to include in the review. For the published literature, inclusion criteria consisted of both descriptive and intervention studies focusing on the target population (ECE workforce in the USA), published in English within the past 10 years. We did not limit the types of study designs that were included in this review and so we did not assess the quality of the resulting evidence. Given the relatively small size of the evidence base in this area, we included otherwise unpublished dissertations, Master’s theses and organizational reports (e.g., government, non-profit). To assess whether articles met these criteria, titles and abstracts were first reviewed by the first author for relevance and duplicates were deleted. Next, full-text of remaining papers (n = 43) were reviewed to confirm that each paper met the inclusion criteria. Lastly, discussion with the whole author team was used if there was ambiguity about a particular paper. During this process, six articles were excluded because they were conducted outside of the USA and two were excluded because they were commentary pieces and did not contain primary data.

For programs, we included any program targeting some component of ECE workforce health that has been offered in the USA at least one time within the past 3 years. We excluded studies and programs that focused on only acute health topics (e.g., infectious disease or injuries). Both published intervention studies and unpublished programs were included.