Family support for reducing morbidity and mortality in people with HIV/AIDS.
BACKGROUND
Care and support play a critical role in assisting people who are HIV-positive to understand the need for prevention and to enable them to protect others. As the HIV/AIDS pandemic progresses and HIV-seropositive individuals contend with devastating illness, it seemed timely to inquire if they receive support from family members. It also was important to develop a normative idea of how much family support exists and from whom it emanates.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the effect of family support on morbidity, mortality, quality of life, and economics in families with at least one HIV-infected member, in developing countries.


METHODS
The following databases were searched:The Cochrane Central Register for Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, MEDLINE, AIDSLINE, CINAHL, Dissertation Abstracts International (DAI), EMBASE, BIOSIS, SCISEARCH, the Cochrane HIV/AIDS group specialized register, INDMED, Proquest, and various South Asian abstracting databases, will be included in the database list. The publication sites of the World Health Organization, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other international research and non-governmental organizations. An extensive search strategy string was developed in consultation with the trial search coordinator of the HIV/AIDS Review Group. Numerous relevant keywords were included in the string to get an exhaustive electronic literature search. The search was not restricted by language. Articles from other languages were translated into English with the help of experts. A hand search was carried out in many journals and abstracts of the conference proceedings of national and international conferences related to AIDS (e.g. the International Conference on HIV/AIDS and STI in Africa [ICASA]). Efforts also were made to contact experts to identify unpublished research and trials still underway.


METHODS
Intervention studies. Randomized control trials (RCTs) and quasi-RCTs involving HIV-infected individuals with family support in developing countries.


METHODS
We independently screened the results of the search to select potentially relevant studies and to retrieve the full articles. We independently applied the inclusion criteria to the potentially relevant studies. No studies were identified that fulfilled the selection criteria.


RESULTS
We were unable to find any trials of family support in reducing the morbidity and mortality in HIV-infected persons in developing countries.


CONCLUSIONS
There is insufficient evidence to bring out the effect of family support in reducing the morbidity and mortality of HIV-infected persons in developing countries. This review has highlighted the dearth of high-quality quantitative research about family support. There is a clear need for rigorous studies of the clinical effects of family support on people with HIV in developing countries.
Mohanan
Padma
P
Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, Karnataka, India, 575001.
Kamath
Asha
A
D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000150:complications / Q000191:economics / Q000401:mortality; D003906:Developing Countries; D005190:Family; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000191:economics / Q000401:mortality; D006801:Humans; D011788:Quality of Life