Prevalence of Patient-Centered Care (PCC) in HIV guidelines in Eastern and Southern Africa: A multi-country content analysis of government documents

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Over 38 million people are living with Human immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV) globally with Eastern and  Southern Africa accounting for 53% of PLHIV. This study aimed to characterise the prevalence of Patient Centred Care content in HIV  guidelines.
Methods: Official HIV guidelines/policies of countries classified under Eastern and Southern Africa region, by Joint United Nations  Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) were retrieved online and assessed using the Patient Centered Care (PCC) tool by Santana et al.
Results: Total of 25 policies were included from 18 countries. Kappa’s coefficient for all policies was 0.71, p<0.01. Policies from Zambia  had the highest total score (13/27), whilst Mauritius and Madagascar had the lowest (0/25 and 4/25). Component wise, developing PCC educational programs had the highest score across countries while PCC monitoring had the least score.
Conclusion: The low prevalence of PCC in all countries’ HIV guidelines is concerning and presents an opportunity to further develop  holistic content in guidelines that is patient centered. Provision of PCC will be integral in tackling the AIDS epidemic. Furthermore, more  studies are warranted.