Counselling, case management and health promotion for people living with HIV/AIDS: An overview of systematic reviews

Abstract

Our objective was to identify all existing systematic reviews related to counselling, case management and health promotion for people living with HIV/AIDS. For the reviews identified, we assessed the quality and local applicability to support evidence-informed policy and practice. We searched 12 electronic databases and two reviewers independently assessed the 5,398 references retrieved from our searches and included 18 systematic reviews. Each review was categorized according to the topic(s) addressed, quality appraised and summarized by extracting key messages, the year searches were last completed and the countries in which included studies were conducted. Twelve reviews address topics related to counselling and case management (mean quality score of 6.5/11). Eight reviews (mean quality score of 6/11) address topics related to health promotion (two address both domains). The findings from this overview of systematic reviews provide a useful resource for supporting the development and delivery of evidence-informed support services in community settings. © 2012 The Author(s).