Table 5.

Characteristics of included studies—observational studies

Authors	Study method	Participants	Country	Intervention arm	Control arm	Target period (if applicable)	Outcome measures
Appiah et al56	Cross-sectional observational study	Tuberculosis clinic patients and VCT clients	Ghana	Tuberculosis clinic-based testing	VCT clinic-based testing	1–6 months	Uptake of testing and results
Huebner et al55	Controlled before and after studies	Bathhouse patrons	USA	Rapid VCT	Conventional VCT	11–13 months	Uptake of testing; receipt of test results
Liang et al54	Prospective cohort study	Men who have sex with men, injection drug users and commercial sex workers	USA	Rapid HIV testing	Traditional serum-based HIV testing	9 months	Uptake of testing; HIV prevalence; post-test counselling
Shrestha et al29	Cohort study	High-risk members of the population11	USA	Outreach-based HIV testing	Clinic-based HIV testing	23 months	Cost per notification
White et al24	Retrospective cohort study	Emergency department patients	USA	Point-of-care HIV testing	Laboratory-based HIV testing	6 months	HIV-testing rates

VCT, voluntary counselling and testing.