Table 1.
Key characteristics of the included systematic reviews and Risk of bias of each review
| Authors, date of publicationa | PICOSb | Dates of last search | Databases searched (n) | Risk of Bias and quality of evidence tools | Total number of studies/Number of studies relevant to the overview (designs)c,d | Risk of bias of the review (assessed using ROBIS tool) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quantitative synthesis- meta-analysis | ||||||
| Aspinall, 2014 [27] | P: PWID I: NSP (Specialist sites, pharmacies or outreach services) C: No, rare, or less exposure to NSP O: HIV incidence S: any |
2012 | CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, IBSS, MEDLINE and PsycINFO (6) | Newcastle-Ottawa each study & GRADE to assess quality of evidence as a whole | 12/12 (11 CC/Co; 1 OTH) | Low |
| Hagan, 2011 [34] | P: individuals who could conceivably have acquired HCV infection via administration of an illegal drug (PWID among them) I: interventions that could prevent HCV infection C:NR O: HCV prevalence or incidence rates, and measures of association with prevalence or incidence S: any |
2010 | Current Contents, Dissertation Abstracts, ERIC, NIH CRISP, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts (7) | Developed their own quality scale | 26/7 (7 CC/Co) | High |
| Turner, 2011 [32] | P: PWID in the UK I: NSP or OST (or combination) C: OST vs non OST; high vs low coverage of NSP O: HCV infection and IRB S: any |
NR | PubMed and Web of Science (2) | None | 4/3 (1 CC/Co; 2 OTH) | High |
| Cross, 1998 [26] | P: PWID I: NSP or educational programmes C: NR O: IRB S: experimental or quasi-experimental design |
1995 | AIDSLINE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Social Science Citation Index (4) | None | 26/10 (1 RCT; 9 OTH) | High |
| Qualitative synthesis | ||||||
| Abdul-Quader, 2013 [29] | P: PWID I: Structural interventions that address external factors to reduce HIV and HCV C: any quantitative comparison O: Changes in HIV/HCV in relation to intervention S: controlled or before & after |
2011 | Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, EMBASE, LILACS, PsycINFO, PubMed, and the Web of Science/Web of Social Science (6) | WHO-Johns Hopkins 9-Point Rigour Scale. | 15/15 (1 CC/Co; 14 OTH) | Unclear |
| Des Jarlais, 2013 [28] | P: PWID in low-and middle income and transitional countries (LMICs) I: NSP C: any O: changes in prevalence or incidence of HIV, HCV, HIV/ HCV co-infection or changes over time in newly reported HIV or HCV cases of infection S: any |
2011 | EMBASE, NLM Gateway, PubMed, Web of Science (4) | None | 13/13 (13 OTH) | High |
| Hong and Li, 2009 [31] | P: People with HIV/ AIDS in China I: Any behavioural intervention C: Any O: Rate of needle-sharing S: Any |
2008 | AIDSLine, EBSCO, FirstSearch, PsycINFO, PubMed (4) | None | 25/3 (1 RCT; 1 CC/Co; 1 OTH) | High |
| Jones, 2008 [12] | P: PWID I: NSP C: any O: IRB, HIV, HVC S: RCT, controlled non-randomised studies, controlled and uncontrolled before and after studies, cross-sectional studies, cohort studies, case-control studies and ecological studies |
2008 | ACP Journal Club, ASSIA, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, EPPI-Centre databases, Health Information Management Consortium, IBSS, MEDLINE, National Research Register Archive, OpenSIGLE, Project CORK, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts, SOMED (15) |
Quality assessment tools developed by NICE Centre for Public Health Excellence, England and Wales and the Effective Public Health Practice Project, Canada | 24/15 (2 RCT; 1 CC/Co; 12 OTH) | Low |
| Kall, 2007 [30] | P: PWID I: NSPs C: control or comparison groups O: HIV incidence or prevalence S: any |
2005 | MEDLINE and PsyclNFO (2) | None | 16/16 (8 CC/Co; 8 OTH) | High |
| Wright, 2006 [33] | P: PWID I: primary prevention intervention targeting injecting drug use C: any O: HCV prevalence and incidence S: intervention or observational studies |
2003 | Cochrane Library, CINAHL, EMBASE, MEDLINE and PsycINFO (4) | Developed their own quality scale | 18/12 (9 CC/Co; 3 OTH) | High |
| Tilson, 2006 [24] | P: PWID I: NSP C: With and without OST; Placebo. O: IRB, HCV and HIV S: NR |
2006 | Cochrane Library, Grey Literature Report, EMBASE, PubMed, PsycINFO, Social Science Abstracts, Web of Science, WorldCat (8) |
GRADE | 45/43 (28 CC/Co; 15 OTH) | Unclear |
| Gibson, 2001 [35] | P:PWID I:NSP C: any O:HIV, HBV, HCV and IRB S:any |
1999 | Medline and PsycINFO (2) | None | 42/32 (19 CC/Co; 13 OTH) | High |
| Leonard, 1999 [25] | P: PWID I: NSP C: Any comparator group (but none was not allowed) O: HIV, HCV and IRB S: NR |
1999 | AIDSLINE, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PHEffect (6) | Quality assessment tools developed by the Effective Public Health Practice Project team, Canada | 21/19 (15 CC/Co; 4 OTH) | Unclear |
aCategorized by type of synthesis and listed by publication date
bPICOS: acronym for Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome and Study Design
cClassified by authors of the review
dCC/Co: Case-Control/Cohort; RCT: Randomized Control Trial; OTH: other (time-series designs, before-after studies, ecological studies)