GRADE summary of findings table for pharmacy versus non-pharmacy personnel for dispensing antiretroviral therapy
| Population: people living with HIV Setting: Brazil, Kenya and Uganda (one study per country) Intervention: non-pharmacy personnel for dispensing antiretroviral therapy Control: pharmacy personnel for dispensing antiretroviral therapy | |||||
| Outcomes (mean follow-up: 12 months) | Pharmacy personnel | Non-pharmacy personnel | Relative effect (95% CI) | No. of Participants (studies) | Quality of evidence (GRADE) |
| Mortality | 76 per 1000 | 141 per 1000 (33 to 602) | RR 1.86 (0.44 to 7.95) | 1993 (three studies) | ⊕⊕⊕⊝ very low1 2 |
| Virological failure | 131 per 1000 | 120 per 1000 (95 to 150) | RR 0.92 (0.73 to 1.15) | 1993 (three studies) | ⊕⊕⊝⊝ low1 3 |
| Loss to follow-up | 28 per 1000 | 31 per 1000 (19 to 53) | RR 1.13 (0.68 to 1.91) | 1993 (three studies) | ⊕⊕⊝⊝ low1 3 |
GRADE Working Group grades of evidence.
High certainty: further research is very unlikely to change our confidence in the estimate of effect.
Moderate certainty: further research is likely to have an important impact on our confidence in the estimate of effect and may change the estimate.
Low certainty: further research is very likely to have an important impact on our confidence in the estimate of effect and is likely to change the estimate.
Very low certainty: we are very uncertain about the estimate.
*We downgraded by one for serious indirectness: Two trials compared complex interventions that included, but were not merely limited to, pharmacy and non-pharmacy personnel.
†We downgraded by two for serious imprecision: There are few events and the effect estimates have wide confidence intervals, ranging from appreciable benefit to harm.
‡We downgraded by one for serious imprecision: there are few events, and the effect estimates have wide CIs, ranging from appreciable benefit to harm.
GRADE, Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluaton; RR, risk ratio.