Examining the health and health service utilization of heterosexual men with HIV: a community-informed scoping review

ABSTRACT

The prevalence of HIV infection among heterosexual men has increased. Consequently, the need for health and support services for this group is likely to increase. We conducted a scoping review of studies regarding the health and health service use of heterosexual men with HIV that was informed by research priorities identified by this community. We searched six databases from inception to August 2014. We included all English-language qualitative and quantitative studies examining the health and health service use of heterosexual men with HIV. Our search strategy yielded 2665 references, of which 70 were included in the scoping review. We summarized the research into the following domains identified by summit participants: treatment of HIV and its complications (n = 9), health and social support services utilization (n = 27), social determinants of health (n = 20), prevention (n = 11), family planning (n = 4) and psychosocial research (n = 33). Key findings from the review included poor mental health-related well-being, over-representation among “late presenters” to care and greater fear of disclosure of HIV status relative to men who have sex with men. In general, research conducted to date was not well aligned with the priorities identified by the community.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV
• scoping review
• heterosexual men

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Carolyn Ziegler and David Lightfoot, from St. Michael’s Hospital Scotiabank Library for conducting the search strategy.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Tony Antoniou was supported by a New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research - Ontario HIV Treatment Network.