Healthcare Workers’ Perspectives on the Barriers to Providing HIV Services to Children in Sub-Saharan Africa

Table 1

A summary of the studies identified.

Reference	Title	HIV focus	Study objective	Location	Population sample size	Study design and methods of data collection
		area
[7]	Health care workers’ perspectives about disclosure to HIV-infected children; cross-sectional survey of health facilities in Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces,; South Africa	Disclosure	To assess how disclosure to HIV-infected children is being implemented in public health facilities	South; Africa	206, 140 (68.2%) were nurses, 44 (21.5%) were lay counsellors, and 4 (2%) were doctors	A cross-sectional survey using a semistructured questionnaire
[8]	Healthcare providers' perspectives on discussing HIV status with infected children	Disclosure	To investigate South African healthcare providers’ perspectives on discussing HIV status with infected children	South; Africa	40 providers, 11 doctors, 13 nurses, and 7 others (social workers and pharmacists)	Qualitative using structured; interviews
[9]	“If I Take My Medicine, I Will Be Strong:” Evaluation of a Paediatric HIV; Disclosure Intervention in Namibia	Disclosure	To evaluate healthcare worker and caregiver perspectives on the effectiveness of the intervention in increasing their capacity to engage in the disclosure process and improving paediatric patient adherence behaviour	Namibia	35 healthcare workers and 46 caregivers of HIV-positive children	Qualitative interviews using semistructured questionnaires
[10]	Using a Health Provider; Insights to Inform; Paediatric HIV Disclosure: A Qualitative Study and Practice Framework from Kenya	Disclosure	To determine processes, concerns, successes, beliefs, and experiences of providers surrounding paediatric HIV disclosure	Kenya	21 providers, 3–5 from each clinic; 2 clinicians, 5 clinical officers, 3 nurses, 3 nurse counsellors, 2 psychologists, 1 clinic assistant, and 1 peer educator	Qualitative interviews using semistructured questionnaires
[11]	HIV Status Disclosure to; Perinatally-Infected; Adolescents in Zimbabwe: A Qualitative Study of Adolescent and Healthcare Worker Perspectives	Disclosure	To examine healthcare worker and adolescent perceptions of the disclosure process in health facilities	Zimbabwe	31 (14 male, 17 female) prenatally infected adolescents aged 16–20, 15 (1 male, 14 female) healthcare workers	Qualitative interviews using semistructured questionnaires
[12]	Barriers to Provider Initiated Testing and Counselling for Children in a High HIV Prevalence Setting: A Mixed Methods Study	PICT	To investigate the provision and uptake of HIV provider-initiated counselling and testing (PICT) among children in primary healthcare settings and to explore healthcare worker perspectives on the provision of HIV testing to children	Zimbabwe	Children aged 6 to; 15 years and 12; healthcare workers	Qualitative interviews using semistructured questionnaires
[13]	‘Are we allowed to disclose?’: A Healthcare Team's Experiences of Talking with Children and Adolescents about their HIV status	Disclosure	To explore the perspectives and experiences of a healthcare team at a paediatric clinic in South Africa about disclosure to children	South; Africa	23 healthcare providers	Qualitative study-focus group discussions
[14]	Factors influencing uptake of HIV care and treatment among children in South Africa-a qualitative study of caregivers and clinic staff	HIV care and treatment	To explore the perspectives of clinic staff and caregivers of children enrolled in HIV services on barriers and facilitators of children's uptake of HIV care	South; Africa	21 caregivers of HIV-infected children attending these clinics, 21 clinic staff members, and three lead members of staff from affiliated care centres	Qualitative study-interviews using semistructured questionnaires
[15]	“Experiences with the disclosure of HIV-positive status to the infected child”: Perspectives of healthcare providers in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania	Disclosure	To explore experiences of healthcare providers in the disclosure of HIV-positive status to the infected child and factors influencing the process	Tanzania	20 healthcare providers	Qualitative interviews using semistructured questionnaires
[16]	Routine checks for HIV in children attending primary health care facilities in South Africa: Attitudes of nurses and child caregivers	HIV; counselling and testing services	To describe the attitudes towards, and experiences of, implementation of routine checks for HIV in the context of IMCI implementation, from the perspective of both caregivers and nurses	South; Africa	5 with Integrated Management of Childhood Illness- (IMCI-) trained nurses (3 in KwaZulu-Natal and 2 in Limpopo) and 5 with mothers and caregivers (3 in KwaZulu-Natal and 2 in Limpopo), 10 nurses in each district for each focus group	Qualitative study-focus group discussions
[17]	Barriers and facilitators to antiretroviral medication adherence among HIV infected paediatric patients in Ethiopia: A qualitative study	Antiretroviral therapy adherence	To explore the barriers and facilitators to Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) adherence among HIV-infected children	Ethiopia	12 caregivers of nonadherent children, 14 key informants, eight counsellors, and four physicians, including two paediatricians	Qualitative interviews using semistructured questionnaires