Question

Consider a research question on HIV or Pre-exposure prophylaxis and what qualitative method you would use to answer that question. How would you structure that research project? What sampling framework would you use to recruit participants? Why would this be the appropriate strategy? What data would result from this study? What design considerations or limitations might you need to overcome?

Answer 1

Aim

To evaluate the use of oral pre exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) containing "tenofovir disoproxil fumarate" as an HIV prevention strategy in various population who are at substantial risk of acquiring HIV, drug resistance, etc.

Design

Systemic reviews (rigorous, systematic method to lessen the bias in the results) and meta analysis.

Methods:

Various conference abstracts and comprehensive research strategy reviewing electronic databases. Random effect meta- analysis for calculating pooled effect estimates.

Results:

Total eighteen studies included; from 39 articles and six abstracts of conferences. Across various populations and PrEP regimens, it showed that there is reduction in risk of HIV acquisition. But more cases of drug resistance have been observed among PrEP users who started using PrEP while they were acutely infected with HIV. It was found that there was no association between PrEP use and change in sexual behaviour.

Conclusion:

PrEP is found to be protective against HIV infection in populations, presenting few safety risks and no behavioural risk.

Limitations:

Despite comprehensive strategies and searching studies may have failed to identify eligible studies. Contacting study authors for further clarifications but all investigators were unreachable.