The Evidence Project: Systematic Reviews of Critical HIV Interventions, and Disruption in HIV Services from COVID-19 in LMIC

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT Abstract: Despite the vast and ever-growing scientific literature on the efficacy of behavior, social, and structural interventions, interpreting the scientific literature is challenging. Identifying relevant studies is time intensive. The quality of research from published reports requires careful analysis. There are conflicting findings across studies. Metrics and study designs used across studies are typically inconsistent. Pooling results across studies also requires advanced statistical techniques. The state-of-the-art strategy to address these challenges is to use systematic reviews and meta-analyses to analyze and interpret the effects of interventions evidenced with research across multiple studies. In the prposed study we will conduct systematic reviews and meta- analyses on studies from LMIC that focus on behavioral, social, or structural interventions. There are three key areas we will analyze: (1) interventions designed to support linkage, retention, and adherence to ART and PrEP with a focus on modes of service delivery; (2) interventions that integrate non-HIV health issues with HIV- specific health issues; and (3) assessing the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on HIV-related care and prevention in LMIC. In addition, we will add to our rigorous data extraction information on both the theoretical basis of the interventions under consideration, as well as data on the implementation characteristics of each intervention. Data extraction on implementation characteristics and theory will also be done retrospectively for all 435 studies we have previously reviewed and added to our data repository.