Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the HIV care continuum: a mixed methods systematic review protocol

Objective: The objective of this systematic review is to synthesize evidence on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the HIV care continuum for persons living with or at risk of living with HIV. Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic affected the self-management and care of people living with HIV. Self-regulation to acquire recurring treatment for HIV is essential for managing symptoms as well as viral suppression. Therefore, this review will systematically appraise and synthesize primary literature on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on all phases of the HCC for people living with, or at risk of acquiring, HIV. Inclusion criteria: This systematic review will include quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods studies. The search will be limited to studies reporting findings from March 2020. Selected studies must focus on one or more steps of the HIV care continuum, which are diagnosis of HIV infection, linkage to care, retention in care, adherence to antiretroviral therapy, and viral suppression. There are no age, gender, or geographic location restrictions for this review. Studies that examined the impact on other diseases as well as HIV will be included only if the data for HIV can be extracted separately. Methods: The JBI methodology for convergent integrated mixed methods systematic reviews will guide this review. The following databases will be searched: MEDLINE (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCOhost), CAB Direct, and Embase. Articles will be screened by 2 independent reviewers. In the case of a disagreement between reviewers, a third independent reviewer will resolve the conflict. Articles will be appraised for methodological quality and their data extracted using an original extraction tool created for the study's purpose.