Evolving roles and impacts of digital health tools in HIV prevention efforts in Africa: a scoping review protocol

With the proliferation of digital technology, the health sector, like other sectors of society, has increasingly adopted digital technologies, resulting in a dynamic landscape where the roles and impacts of digital health tools in different contexts are constantly evolving. This integration of digital technology into the health space has extended into the field of HIV prevention, ushering in new possibilities and challenges. However, review studies documenting the evolving use of digital health tools in HIV prevention are scant, particularly in regions with many low- and middle-income countries, such as in Africa, which have some of the highest HIV prevalence and incidence rates in the world.

This scoping review will follow the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) 2020 guidelines for methodological rigour and will be reported using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Extension for Scoping Review (PRISMA-ScR). Relevant published literature will be searched using a combination of keywords, Boolean terms and Medical Subject Headings in the following databases: CINAHL, Medline, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Scopus, PubMed, WHO Digital Health ATLAS and Health Source with no date limits for the studies chosen. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) website and the reference lists of selected articles will also be used for backward searching, and Google Scholar will be used for forward citation tracking. The search strategy will be formulated following the guidelines provided by the Peer review of Electronic Search Strategies statement for peer assessment of electronic search strategies. Two reviewers will independently assess the references to ensure that they align with the predetermined eligibility criteria. Subsequently, the data from the included studies, published between January 2004 and January 2026, reflecting the period in which digital health innovations have rapidly expanded in Africa, will be extracted and any discrepancies resolved using a third reviewer. Thematic analysis will be used to analyse the data, and the findings will be reported using both tables and figures. The PRISMA-ScR will be followed to report this study's results. Quality appraisal of the included studies will be done using the mixed methods appraisal tool V.2018.

This study does not involve human participants and only reviews existing literature in the public domain, and therefore ethical approval was not required. Our intention is to disseminate our research findings through a diverse range of channels, including peer-reviewed journals, conferences and webinars.