Mapping the evidence on the Effectiveness of decentralizing HIV and TB health care services in Africa among HIV/TB patients: A systematic scoping review protocol

Abstract

Abstract Background Antiretroviral therapy decentralization has been implemented to scale up access to treatment and improve the outcomes for patients with Human Immune-Deficiency Virus (HIV). HIV-associated tuberculosis is still a major public health concern despite the improved antiretroviral coverage.,. The aim of this scoping review is to map evidence on the feasibility of decentralization of HIV and TB health care services to improve client outcomes. Methods A structured literature search on the topic will be conducted in relevant bibliographic databases. The Arksey and O’Malley scoping review methodology will be used to undertake the review. PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, EBSCOhost, and ProQuest One Academic will be searched using the following key words: “HIV and TB service decentralization” in for manuscripts published between 2017 and 2021 with title and abstract screening and full text review. Screening and extraction will be performed independently by two authors using EndNote X9 and Rayyan software. The data will be extracted using Microsoft Excel. Using a data charting form, data will be sifted and organized by key categories and themes. Discussion The scoping review will establish the literature on effectiveness of the decentralization models of HIV/TB care. As an anticipation, the scoping review will identify gaps for synthesis on decentralization of HIV/TB care to primary health care which may not be currently known. This review shall display different decentralization approaches and concepts that are currently available. Systematic review registration On September 17, 2022, we registered our protocol with the Open Science Framework (OSF) platform’s registries (registration link: https://osf.io/ht8wr).