Effectiveness of eHealth Interventions for HIV Prevention and Management in Sub-Saharan Africa: Systematic Review and Meta-analyses

Louisa Manby; Catherine Aicken; Marine Delgrange; Julia Bailey

doi:10.1007/s10461-021-03402-w

Effectiveness of eHealth Interventions for HIV Prevention and Management in Sub-Saharan Africa: Systematic Review and Meta-analyses

Louisa Manby
, Catherine Aicken
, Marine Delgrange
, Julia Bailey

Inclusive Digital Societies Research Excellence Group

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

HIV is still the leading cause of death in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), despite medical advances. eHealth interventions are effective for HIV prevention and management, but it is unclear whether this can be generalised to resource-poor settings. This systematic review aimed to establish the effectiveness of eHealth interventions in SSA. Six electronic databases were screened to identify randomised controlled trials (RCTs) published between 2000 and 2020. Meta-analyses were performed, following Cochrane methodology, to assess the impact of eHealth interventions on HIV-related behaviours and biological outcomes. 25 RCTs were included in the review. Meta-analyses show that eHealth interventions significantly improved HIV management behaviours (OR 1.21; 95% CI 1.05–1.40; Z = 2.67; p = 0.008), but not HIV prevention behaviours (OR 1.02; 95% CI 0.78–1.34; Z = 0.17; p = 0.86) or biological outcomes (OR 1.17; 95% CI 0.89–1.54; Z = 1.10; p = 0.27) compared with minimal intervention control groups. It is a hugely important finding that eHealth interventions can improve HIV management behaviours as this is a low-cost way of improving HIV outcomes and reducing the spread of HIV in SSA. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42020186025.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	457-469
Number of pages	13
Journal	AIDS and Behavior
Volume	26
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-021-03402-w
Publication status	Published - 24 Aug 2021

Bibliographical note

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long
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provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes
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included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated
otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in
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permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will
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Keywords

eHealth
Human immunodeficiency virus
Meta-analysis
Sub-Saharan Africa
Systematic review

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Manby2021_Article_EffectivenessOfEHealthIntervenFinal published version, 2.13 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Effectiveness of eHealth Interventions for HIV Prevention and Management in Sub-Saharan Africa: Systematic Review and Meta-analyses",

abstract = "HIV is still the leading cause of death in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), despite medical advances. eHealth interventions are effective for HIV prevention and management, but it is unclear whether this can be generalised to resource-poor settings. This systematic review aimed to establish the effectiveness of eHealth interventions in SSA. Six electronic databases were screened to identify randomised controlled trials (RCTs) published between 2000 and 2020. Meta-analyses were performed, following Cochrane methodology, to assess the impact of eHealth interventions on HIV-related behaviours and biological outcomes. 25 RCTs were included in the review. Meta-analyses show that eHealth interventions significantly improved HIV management behaviours (OR 1.21; 95\% CI 1.05–1.40; Z = 2.67; p = 0.008), but not HIV prevention behaviours (OR 1.02; 95\% CI 0.78–1.34; Z = 0.17; p = 0.86) or biological outcomes (OR 1.17; 95\% CI 0.89–1.54; Z = 1.10; p = 0.27) compared with minimal intervention control groups. It is a hugely important finding that eHealth interventions can improve HIV management behaviours as this is a low-cost way of improving HIV outcomes and reducing the spread of HIV in SSA. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42020186025.",

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AB - HIV is still the leading cause of death in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), despite medical advances. eHealth interventions are effective for HIV prevention and management, but it is unclear whether this can be generalised to resource-poor settings. This systematic review aimed to establish the effectiveness of eHealth interventions in SSA. Six electronic databases were screened to identify randomised controlled trials (RCTs) published between 2000 and 2020. Meta-analyses were performed, following Cochrane methodology, to assess the impact of eHealth interventions on HIV-related behaviours and biological outcomes. 25 RCTs were included in the review. Meta-analyses show that eHealth interventions significantly improved HIV management behaviours (OR 1.21; 95% CI 1.05–1.40; Z = 2.67; p = 0.008), but not HIV prevention behaviours (OR 1.02; 95% CI 0.78–1.34; Z = 0.17; p = 0.86) or biological outcomes (OR 1.17; 95% CI 0.89–1.54; Z = 1.10; p = 0.27) compared with minimal intervention control groups. It is a hugely important finding that eHealth interventions can improve HIV management behaviours as this is a low-cost way of improving HIV outcomes and reducing the spread of HIV in SSA. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42020186025.

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ER -

Effectiveness of eHealth Interventions for HIV Prevention and Management in Sub-Saharan Africa: Systematic Review and Meta-analyses

Abstract

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