Influence of faith-based organisations on HIV prevention strategies in Africa: a systematic review

BACKGROUND: The HIV/AIDS epidemic remains of global significance and there is a need to target sub-Saharan Africa since it is the hardest hit region worldwide. Religion and more specifically faith-based organisations can have an effect on socio-cultural factors that increase or decrease the risk of infection; and offer preventative interventions to the wider community. OBJECTIVE: To understand the influence of faith-based organisations on HIV prevention in Africa. METHOD: The main search engine of a British university ‘mysearch’ was used as this incorporates all relevant databases. Studies were also retrieved by searches within Google scholar, PubMed and reference lists of included papers were hand searched. The authors assessed the relevance of each article separately against the inclusion criteria. The data extraction form was piloted by the first author and cross-checked by the other authors. RESULTS: Seven studies met all inclusion criteria and were reviewed. Seven individual themes were identified. However, for the purposes of focus within this paper only two themes were focused on. CONCLUSION: Given the accessibility of faith-based organisations (FBOs) and the coverage of religion among the population, FBOs are potentially important players in HIV prevention. Therefore, more resources and support should be given to support their health promotion strategies.