The effect of aerobic exercises on lipid profile of patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection undergoing highly active antiretroviral therapy: a protocol for a systematic review

Patients living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection who are treated with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) often experience metabolic changes that have an adverse effect on their over-all health status. This review will assess the effect of aerobic exercises on the lipid profile of individuals with HIV infection undergoing HAART. Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, CINAHL (Cumulative index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), OVID, ProQuest, AMED (Allied and Complementary Medicine Database), PsycINFO, Web of Science Core Collection and Pedro databases will be searched until June 2018. Studies that investigated the effects of aerobic exercises on the lipid profile of HAART treated patients with HIV will be included. Two reviewers will screen all articles for eligibility and independently evaluate the risk of bias, complete quality assessment and extract data for all included articles. Homogenous quantitative outcome data will be analyzed using a random effect model of meta-analysis with results presented as relative risk for dichotomous variable and standardized mean for continuous variable. Heterogeneous qualitative data will be analyzed using narrative synthesis. This systematic review will provide evidence about the effectiveness of aerobic exercises in managing HAART related dyslipidemia in patients with HIV infection and thus provide the impetus for more structured exercise interventions.