Table 1.
Summary of characteristics of 142 included studies
| Total (142 studies) | People who inject drugs (80 studies, 56%) | General population (37 studies, 26%) | People in prisons (20 studies, 14%) | People living with HIV (5 studies, 4%) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low-income and middle-income countries | 20 (14%) | 7 (9%) | 10 (27%) | 1 (5%) | 2 (40%) | |
| Coverage of outcomes in care cascade | ||||||
| Early phase of cascade (testing with or without linkage) | 17 (12%) | 8 (10%) | 2 (5%) | 7 (35%) | 0 | |
| Late phase of cascade (treatment with or without linkage) | 87 (61%) | 53 (66%) | 24 (65%) | 8 (40%) | 2 (40%) | |
| Full cascade | 38 (27%) | 19 (24%) | 11 (30%) | 5 (25%) | 3 (60%) | |
| Decentralisation* | ||||||
| Number of decentralisation study groups | 154 | 86 | 41 | 20 | 7 | |
| Full decentralisation (and integration)† | 88 (57%) | 55 (63%) | 16 (39%) | 12 (60%) | 5 (71%) | |
| Partial decentralisation (testing at site, referral for care) | 44 (29%) | 25 (29%) | 11 (27%) | 8 (40%) | 0 | |
| No decentralisation | 22 (14%) | 6 (7%) | 14 (34%) | 0 | 2 (29%) | |
| Task-shifting* | ||||||
| Number of task-shifting study groups | 153 | 82 | 44 | 20 | 6 | |
| Non-specialist treatment | 46 (30%) | 27 (33%) | 10 (23%) | 6 (30%) | 3 (50%) | |
| Non-specialist treatment with onsite or telehealth-guided specialist support | 24 (16%) | 15 (18%) | 4 (9%) | 4 (20%) | 1 (17%) | |
| Specialist treatment | 51 (33%) | 20 (24%) | 25 (57%) | 3 (15%) | 2 (33%) | |
| Unknown or not applicable | 32 (21%) | 20 (24%) | 5 (11%) | 7 (35%) | 0 | |
| Treatment regimen | ||||||
| DAAs | 83 (58%) | 50 (63%) | 19 (51%) | 10 (50%) | 4 (80%) | |
| DAAs with interferon-based regimen | 7 (5%) | 4 (5%) | 3 (8%) | 0 | 0 | |
| Interferon-based regimen | 35 (25%) | 18 (23%) | 13 (35%) | 3 (15%) | 1 (20%) | |
| Not applicable | 17 (12%) | 8 (10%) | 2 (5%) | 7 (35%) | 0 | |
| Study design | ||||||
| Randomised controlled trial | 6 (4%) | 6 (8%) | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Non-randomised trials | 2 (1%) | 1 (1%) | 1 (3%) | 0 | 0 | |
| Comparative prospective or retrospective study | 11 (8%) | 2 (3%) | 6 (16%) | 1 (5%) | 2 (40%) | |
| Non-comparative observational study | 123 (87%) | 71 (89%) | 30 (81%) | 19 (95%) | 3 (60%) | |
Data are number of study groups, number of studies (%) or number of study groups (%). One study was stratified by people who inject drugs and people in prison, so it was included in this table twice. DAA=direct-acting antiviral.
*
Studies that had comparator groups with different levels of decentralisation or task-shifting were included in multiple categories.
†
Includes ten studies that use an embedded specialist clinic with care provided by visiting specialists.