Background: Evaluation and treatment of patients with Human immune deficiency virus or Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) in clinical palliative care practice depends upon an evidence-based decision-making process which in turn is based upon current research evidence.
Objective: To perform a quantitative analysis of research publications in palliative care journals for reporting characteristics of articles on HIV/AIDS.
Materials and Methods: Twelve palliative care journals were searched for articles with HIV/AIDS or retroviral/retrovirus in title OR abstract of the articles published from 2006-2011. The reporting rates of all journals were compared. The selected articles were categorized into assessment and treatment which were subsequently grouped into original and review articles. The original articles were sub-grouped into qualitative and quantitative studies, and the review articles were grouped into narrative and systematic reviews. Each subgroup of original articles category was further classified according to study designs.
Results: The overall reporting rate among all journals was .70% (20/2856), and Indian Journal of Palliative Care had the highest reporting rate of 5.55% (6/108) followed by International Journal of Palliative Nursing (IJPN) at 1.73% (6/345), and BMC Palliative Care at 1.12% (1/89).
Conclusion: The overall reporting rate for HIV/AIDS articles in palliative care journals was very low and there were no randomized clinical trials and systematic reviews found. The study findings indicate a lack of adequate evidence base for HIV/AIDS in palliative care literature.
Key words: Evidence-based palliative care, Research, Journal reporting, Publication trend, HIV/AIDS.
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