Women-centred HIV care: a scoping review to understand the current state of service delivery for women living with HIV globally

ABSTRACT

Women living with HIV (WLWH) face unique barriers and require specialized, integrated care that focuses on women’s specific needs. We conducted a scoping review to examine factors important for a women-centred HIV care (WCHC) approach. We included published peer-reviewed articles which featured WCHC services as their central focus; included study populations of girls and WLWH aged 14 years of age or older; and contributed to the understanding of WCHC for WLWH. Seven databases were reviewed and yielded 15,332 references, of which 21 fit our inclusion criteria for the scoping review. Research findings were categorized into characteristics of the study, recommendations, and target audiences. Findings revealed WCHC as care which includes the involvement of WLWH in decisions; person-centred integrated care; integrated services including mental health; sexual and reproductive health services; trauma-informed and safe space practices; healthcare provider training; and women’s care self-management. In general, current systems of care do not meet the unique needs of WLWH.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV
• women
• scoping review
• women-centred care

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) [grant number 1017493]; and the CIHR Canadian HIV Trials Network [grant number CTN262]. Dr. Priscilla Medeiros is supported by the CTN Postdoctoral Fellowship Award.