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Background: HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders are common in people living with HIV/AIDS and affect the adherence of patients to prescriptions, activities of daily living, and quality of life of patients. However, there is a lack of summative evidence in the area. The present meta-analysis was therefore addressing this gap., Methods: We did our electronic search in Psych-Info, EMBASE, Scopus, and PubMed. The retrieved articles were stored with the endnote reference manager and data was extracted using Meta-XL version 5.3. The quality of studies was evaluated with the modified Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). A random-effect model and STATA-16 were used to compute the average estimate of HAND. Heterogeneity was weighed with I 2 statistics. A sensitivity analysis and subgroup analysis were employed. The existence/nonexistence of a publication bias was checked with the Eggers test of publication bias., Results: The average prevalence of HAND was 50.41% (95% CI: 45.56, 55.26). The average estimate of HAND in Europe was found to be 50.015% whereas in Africa, Asia, and the United States of America (USA) it was 49.566, 52.032, and 50.407% respectively. The prevalence of HAND in studies that used the HIV Dementia Scale (IHDS) was 36.883% and 59.956% at cutoff points of IHDS <9.5 and IHDS <10 respectively. Besides, the estimated average of HAND with the global dementia scale (GDS) was 40.766%. The prevalence of HAND in cross-sectional, cohort, and case-control studies was 49.52, 54.087, and 44.45% in that order. Socio-demographic variables; low level of education and older age, clinical and HIV related variables; the advanced stage of the illness and CD4 count of 500 cells/dl or less and psychological variables such as comorbidity of depression increases the risk of HAND., Conclusion: The prevalence of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders was about 50.41%. Low level of education and older age, clinical and HIV related variables such as the advanced stage of the illness and CD4 count of 500 cells/dl or less, and comorbidity of depression were associated with HIV associated neurocognitive disorders. Public health interventions for HIV patients should target these essential problems., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Zenebe, Necho, Yimam and Akele.)

Background: People living with HIV/AIDS have a higher rate of depression/depressive symptoms and this highly affects antiretroviral medication adherence. Therefore, much stronger evidence weighing the burden of depressive symptoms/major depression is warranted., Methods: We investigated PubMed, Scopus, Psych-Info, and Embase databases for systematic review studies. A PRISMA flow diagram was used to show the search process. We also used the Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR) checklist scores. A narrative review and statistical pooling were accompanied to compute the pooled effect size of outcome variables., Results: Overall, 8 systematic review studies addressing 265 primary studies, 4 systematic review studies addressing 48 primary studies, and six systematic review studies addressing 442 primary studies were included for depressive symptoms, major depression, and their effect on medication non-adherence, respectively. Globally, the average depressive symptoms prevalence using the random effect model was 34.17% (24.97, 43.37). In addition, the average prevalence of major depressive disorder was obtained to be 13.42% (10.53, 16.31). All of the 6 included systematic review studies reported a negative association between depressive symptoms and antiretroviral medication non-adherence. The pooled odds ratio of antiretroviral medication adherence among patients with depressive symptoms was 0.54 (0.36, 0.72) ( I 2 = 0.0%, p = 0.487)., Conclusion: Globally, the prevalence of depressive symptoms and major depression is high. There existed a high degree of association between depressive symptoms and antiretroviral medication non-adherence. So, focused intervention modalities should be developed and implemented., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Necho, Zenebe, Tiruneh, Ayano and Yimam.)