Causes of hospital admission among people living with HIV worldwide: 2023 update search strategies 1 Search methodology A draft search strategy was compiled in the OvidSP Medline ALL database by an experienced information specialist. The search strategy included strings of terms and synonyms to reflect the following concepts: Concept 1: HIV and patients with HIV Concept 2: People in hospital Searches were limited by date from 2014 to current to capture any papers published since the original review was conducted. No other limits were added to the search. The search strategy was refined with the project team until the retrieved results reflected the scope of the project. Once agreed, the draft searches were adapted for each database to incorporate database-specific syntax and controlled vocabularies. Full details of the search strings used for each database can be found below . 2 Sources: Bibliographic databases Search strategies for were run on the following bibliographic databases: * OvidSP Medline ALL. o Date of coverage: 1946 to April 25, 2023 o Date of search: 26 April 2023 * OvidSP Embase Classic+Embase. o Date of coverage: 1947 to 2023 April 25 o Date of search: 26 April 2023 * OvidSP Global Health o Date of coverage: 1910 to 2023 week 16 o Date of search: 26 April 2023 * EBSCOhost CINAHL Complete o Date of coverage: Complete database o Date of search: 26 April 2023 * EBSCOhost Africa-Wide Information o Date of coverage: Complete database o Date of search: 26 April 2023 * Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Core Content This comprised the following databases which were searched simultaneously: o Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), 1970-present; o Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), 1970-present; o Arts & Humanities Citation Index (SSCI), 1975-present; o Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Science (CPCI-S), 1990-present; o Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Social Science & Humanities (CPCI-SSH), 1990-present; o Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), 2018-present; o All databases data last updated: 2023-04-22 o Date of search: 26 April 2023 * Clarivate Analytics Web of Science SciELO o Date of coverage: 2002-present. Data updated 2023-04-26 o Date of search: 26 April 2023 * World Health Organization Global Index Medicus o Date of coverage: complete database o Date of search: 26 April 2023 3 Information management All results from the database searches were exported and uploaded to EndNote 20 software. Duplicates were identified and removed using the method described on the LAORS blog.(a) The order the database results were uploaded is included below. After duplicates were removed, remaining results were downloaded in .ris format and forwarded to the team for screening. 4 Search strategies We provide full details of all search strings used for bibliographic databases, with dates and number of references returned and notes explaining any unusual search techniques or syntax. 4.1 OvidSP Medline ALL Database name Medline ALL Database platform OvidSP Dates of database coverage 1946 to April 25, 2023 Date searched 2023-04-26 Number of results 5814 EndNote deduplication order 1 Results after duplications removed 5716 Search strategy notes Search lines ending in a ‘/’ are subject heading searches. Search lines beginning ‘exp’ are exploded subject heading searches. Two-letter codes at the end of search lines designate the fields to search. Fields codes used are: TI: title AB: abstract adjn searches for words within n words of each other. or/x-y combines search sets in the range x-y with Boolean operator OR. * is used for truncation of words. ? finds 0 or 1 character in that placeholder (optional wildcard). words in square brackets […] are comments and are ignored. # Search terms Results 1 exp HIV Infections/ 314042 2 exp HIV/ 107181 3 hiv.ti,ab. 348476 4 ("hiv-1" or "hiv1").ti,ab. 84515 5 ("hiv-2" or "hiv2").ti,ab. 4956 6 human immunodeficiency virus.ti,ab. 94156 7 human immunedeficiency virus.ti,ab. 7 8 human immuno-deficiency virus.ti,ab. 275 9 human immune-deficiency virus.ti,ab. 468 10 (human immun* adj3 deficiency virus).ti,ab. 750 11 acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.ti,ab. 16683 12 acquired immunedeficiency syndrome.ti,ab. 12 13 acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome.ti,ab. 128 14 acquired immune-deficiency syndrome.ti,ab. 6172 15 (acquired immun* adj3 deficiency syndrome).ti,ab. 6341 16 "HIV/AIDS".ti,ab. 31930 17 AIDS.ti,ab. 161512 18 Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Viral/ 1553 19 (AIDS or HIV).jw. 76320 20 or/1-19 499529 21 hospitalization/ or patient admission/ or patient readmission/ 176119 22 Autopsy/ 45098 23 (hospitaliz* or hospitalis* or rehospitaliz* or rehospitalis*).ti,ab. 333936 24 (admiss* or readmiss* or re-admiss* or admit* or readmit* or re-admit*).ti,ab. 507558 25 (autopsy or post-mortem or postmortem).ti,ab. 128788 26 or/21-25 947294 27 20 and 26 16345 28 limit 27 to yr="2014 -Current" 5835 29 remove duplicates from 28 5814 4.2 Ovid SP Embase Classic+Embase Database name Embase Classic+Embase Database platform OvidSP Dates of database coverage 1947 to 2023 April 25 Date searched 2023-04-26 Number of results 17,648 EndNote deduplication order 2 Results after duplications removed 12,045 Search strategy notes Search lines ending in a ‘/’ are subject heading searches. Search lines beginning ‘exp’ are exploded subject heading searches. Two-letter codes at the end of search lines designate the fields to search. Fields codes used are: TI: title AB: abstract adjn searches for words within n words of each other. or/x-y combines search sets in the range x-y with Boolean operator OR. * is used for truncation of words. ? finds 0 or 1 character in that placeholder (optional wildcard). words in square brackets […] are comments and are ignored. # Search terms Results 1 exp Human immunodeficiency virus infection/ 422108 2 exp Human immunodeficiency virus/ 222623 3 hiv.ti,ab. 455934 4 ("hiv-1" or "hiv1").ti,ab. 104418 5 ("hiv-2" or "hiv2").ti,ab. 6096 6 human immunodeficiency virus.ti,ab. 104366 7 human immunedeficiency virus.ti,ab. 30 8 human immuno-deficiency virus.ti,ab. 345 9 human immune-deficiency virus.ti,ab. 609 10 (human immun* adj3 deficiency virus).ti,ab. 962 11 acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.ti,ab. 17563 12 acquired immunedeficiency syndrome.ti,ab. 24 13 acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome.ti,ab. 159 14 acquired immune-deficiency syndrome.ti,ab. 6735 15 (acquired immun* adj3 deficiency syndrome).ti,ab. 6925 16 "HIV/AIDS".ti,ab. 38624 17 AIDS.ti,ab. 195735 18 (AIDS or HIV).jx. 94439 19 or/1-18 691861 20 hospitalization/ 529869 21 hospital admission/ 270861 22 hospital readmission/ 97781 23 exp autopsy/ 213184 24 (hospitaliz* or hospitalis* or rehospitaliz* or rehospitalis*).ti,ab. 569921 25 (admiss* or readmiss* or re-admiss* or admit* or readmit* or re-admit*).ti,ab. 909954 26 (autopsy or post-mortem or postmortem).ti,ab. 203282 27 or/20-26 1912579 28 19 and 27 34784 29 limit 28 to yr="2014 -Current" 17648 4.3 Ovid SP Global Health Database name Global Health Database platform OvidSP Dates of database coverage 1910 to 2023 Week 16 Date searched 2023-04-26 Number of results 3464 EndNote deduplication order 3 Results after duplications removed 566 Search strategy notes Search lines ending in a ‘/’ are subject heading searches. Search lines beginning ‘exp’ are exploded subject heading searches. Two-letter codes at the end of search lines designate the fields to search. Fields codes used are: TI: title AB: abstract adjn searches for words within n words of each other. or/x-y combines search sets in the range x-y with Boolean operator OR. * is used for truncation of words. ? finds 0 or 1 character in that placeholder (optional wildcard). words in square brackets […] are comments and are ignored. # Search terms Results 1 exp human immunodeficiency viruses/ 201238 2 exp human immunodeficiency virus 1/ 33417 3 exp human immunodeficiency virus 2/ 2298 4 people living with hiv/ 9766 5 hiv.ti,ab. 179716 6 ("hiv-1" or "hiv1").ti,ab. 35742 7 ("hiv-2" or "hiv2").ti,ab. 2333 8 human immunodeficiency virus.ti,ab. 46428 9 human immunedeficiency virus.ti,ab. 4 10 human immuno-deficiency virus.ti,ab. 115 11 human immune-deficiency virus.ti,ab. 241 12 (human immun* adj3 deficiency virus).ti,ab. 356 13 acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.ti,ab. 5292 14 acquired immunedeficiency syndrome.ti,ab. 6 15 acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome.ti,ab. 58 16 acquired immune-deficiency syndrome.ti,ab. 3868 17 (acquired immun* adj3 deficiency syndrome).ti,ab. 3932 18 "HIV/AIDS".ti,ab. 21977 19 AIDS.ti,ab. 66592 20 (AIDS or HIV).jx. 44420 21 or/1-20 227329 22 hospital admission/ 18490 23 hospital stay/ 17845 24 exp postmortem examinations/ 18491 25 (hospitaliz* or hospitalis* or rehospitaliz* or rehospitalis*).ti,ab. 83717 26 (admiss* or readmiss* or re-admiss* or admit* or readmit* or re-admit*).ti,ab. 121453 27 (autopsy or post-mortem or postmortem).ti,ab. 29210 28 or/22-27 216343 29 21 and 28 9214 30 limit 29 to yr="2014 -Current" 3464 31 remove duplicates from 30 3464 4.4 EBSCOhost CINAHL Complete Database name CINAHL Complete Database platform EBSCOhost Dates of database coverage Complete database to search date Date searched 2023-04-26 Number of results 2266 EndNote deduplication order 4 Results after duplications removed 360 Search strategy notes Two-letter codes at the start of search lines designate the fields to search. Fields codes used are: TI: title AB: abstract MH: subject heading Subject headings with a ‘+’ at the end of the term are exploded. Nn searches for words within n words of each other. * is used for truncation of words. # finds 0 or 1 character in that placeholder (optional wildcard). # Search terms Results S1 (MH "HIV Infections+") 94,229 S2 (MH "HIV-Positive Persons+") 17,381 S3 (MH "Human Immunodeficiency Virus+") 11,152 S4 (TI HIV) OR (AB HIV) 106,899 S5 (TI ("hiv-1" OR "hiv1" OR "hiv-2" OR "hiv2")) OR (AB ("hiv-1" OR "hiv1" OR "hiv-2" OR "hiv2")) 6,480 S6 (TI "human immunodeficiency virus") OR (AB "human immunodeficiency virus") 17,520 S7 (TI "human immunedeficiency virus") OR (AB "human immunedeficiency virus") 0 S8 (TI "human immuno-deficiency virus") OR (AB "human immuno-deficiency virus") 48 S9 (TI "human immune-deficiency virus") OR (AB "human immune-deficiency virus") 100 S10 (TI ("human immun*" N3 "deficiency virus")) OR (AB ("human immun*" N3 "deficiency virus")) 149 S11 (TI "acquired immunodeficiency syndrome") OR (AB "acquired immunodeficiency syndrome") 2,518 S12 (TI "acquired immunedeficiency syndrome") OR (AB "acquired immunedeficiency syndrome") 1 S13 (TI "acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome") OR (AB "acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome") 19 S14 (TI "acquired immune-deficiency syndrome") OR (AB "acquired immune-deficiency syndrome") 1,117 S15 (TI ("acquired immun*" N3 "deficiency syndrome")) OR (AB ("acquired immun*" N3 "deficiency syndrome")) 1,139 S16 (TI "HIV/AIDS") OR (AB "HIV/AIDS") 15,758 S17 (TI AIDS) OR (AB AIDS) 49,343 S18 (MH "Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Viral") 414 S19 (SO (AIDS OR HIV)) 42,904 S20 S1 OR S2 OR S3 OR S4 OR S5 OR S6 OR S7 OR S8 OR S9 OR S10 OR S11 OR S12 OR S13 OR S14 OR S15 OR S16 OR S17 OR S18 OR S19 159,097 S21 (MH "Hospitalization") OR (MH "Patient Admission") OR (MH "Readmission") 79,574 S22 (MH "Autopsy") 5,813 S23 (TI (hospitaliz* or hospitalis* or rehospitaliz* or rehospitalis*)) OR (AB (hospitaliz* or hospitalis* or rehospitaliz* or rehospitalis*)) 117,062 S24 (TI (admiss* or readmiss* or re-admiss* or admit* or readmit* or re-admit*)) OR (AB (admiss* or readmiss* or re-admiss* or admit* or readmit* or re-admit*)) 167,462 S25 (TI (autopsy or post-mortem or postmortem)) OR (AB (autopsy or post-mortem or postmortem)) 15,741 S26 S21 OR S22 OR S23 OR S24 OR S25 294,025 S27 S20 AND S26 4,379 S28 S27 Limiters - Published Date: 20140101- 2,266 4.5 EBSCOhost Africa-Wide Information Database name Africa-Wide Information Database platform EBSCOhost Dates of database coverage Complete database to search date Date searched 2023-04-26 Number of results 1317 EndNote deduplication order 5 Results after duplications removed 113 Search strategy notes Two-letter codes at the start of search lines designate the fields to search. Fields codes used are: TI: title AB: abstract AF: affiliation Nn searches for words within n words of each other. * is used for truncation of words. # finds 0 or 1 character in that placeholder (optional wildcard). # Search terms Results S1 (TI HIV) OR (AB HIV) 97,958 S2 (TI ("hiv-1" OR "hiv1" OR "hiv-2" OR "hiv2")) OR (AB ("hiv-1" OR "hiv1" OR "hiv-2" OR "hiv2")) 10,459 S3 (TI "human immunodeficiency virus") OR (AB "human immunodeficiency virus") 15,112 S4 (TI "human immunedeficiency virus") OR (AB "human immunedeficiency virus") 5 S5 (TI "human immuno-deficiency virus") OR (AB "human immuno-deficiency virus") 121 S6 (TI "human immune-deficiency virus") OR (AB "human immune-deficiency virus") 177 S7 (TI ("human immun*" N3 "deficiency virus")) OR (AB ("human immun*" N3 "deficiency virus")) 303 S8 (TI "acquired immunodeficiency syndrome") OR (AB "acquired immunodeficiency syndrome") 2,578 S9 (TI "acquired immunedeficiency syndrome") OR (AB "acquired immunedeficiency syndrome") 9 S10 (TI "acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome") OR (AB "acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome") 56 S11 (TI "acquired immune-deficiency syndrome") OR (AB "acquired immune-deficiency syndrome") 1,216 S12 (TI ("acquired immun*" N3 "deficiency syndrome")) OR (AB ("acquired immun*" N3 "deficiency syndrome")) 1,283 S13 (TI "HIV/AIDS") OR (AB "HIV/AIDS") 25,911 S14 (TI AIDS) OR (AB AIDS) 58,208 S15 (SO (AIDS OR HIV)) 26,091 S16 S1 OR S2 OR S3 OR S4 OR S5 OR S6 OR S7 OR S8 OR S9 OR S10 OR S11 OR S12 OR S13 OR S14 OR S15 127,415 S17 (TI (hospitaliz* or hospitalis* or rehospitaliz* or rehospitalis*)) OR (AB (hospitaliz* or hospitalis* or rehospitaliz* or rehospitalis*)) 15,278 S18 (TI (admiss* or readmiss* or re-admiss* or admit* or readmit* or re-admit*)) OR (AB (admiss* or readmiss* or re-admiss* or admit* or readmit* or re-admit*)) 31,770 S19 (TI (autopsy or post-mortem or postmortem)) OR (AB (autopsy or post-mortem or postmortem)) 6,984 S20 S17 OR S18 OR S19 49,689 S21 S16 AND S20 4,717 S22 S21 Limiters - Year Published: 2014- 1,317 4.6 Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Core Content Database name Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) Arts & Humanities Citation Index (SSCI) Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Science (CPCI-S) Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Social Science & Humanities (CPCI-SSH) Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) Database platform Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Dates of database coverage SCI-EXPANDED, 1970-present SSCI, 1970-present AHCI, 1975-present CPCI-S, 1990-present CPCI-SSH, 1990-present ESCI, 2018-present Data last updated: 2023-04-22 Date searched 2023-04-26 Number of results 5236 EndNote deduplication order 6 Results after duplications removed 271 Search strategy notes Two-letter codes at the beginning of search lines designate the fields to search. Fields codes used are: TI: title AB: abstract NEAR/n searches for words within n words of each other. * is used for truncation of words. $ finds 0 or 1 character in that placeholder (optional wildcard). # Search terms Results 1 TI="HIV" OR AB="HIV" 363587 2 TI=("hiv-1" OR "hiv1" OR "hiv-2" OR "hiv2") OR AB=("hiv-1" OR "hiv1" OR "hiv-2" OR "hiv2") 94444 3 TI="human immunodeficiency virus" OR AB="human immunodeficiency virus" 87120 4 TI="human immunedeficiency virus" OR AB="human immunedeficiency virus" 13 5 TI="human immuno-deficiency virus" OR AB="human immuno-deficiency virus" 253 6 TI="human immune-deficiency virus" OR AB="human immune-deficiency virus" 415 7 TI=("human immun*" NEAR/3 "deficiency virus") OR AB=("human immun*" NEAR/3 "deficiency virus") 679 8 TI="acquired immunodeficiency syndrome" OR AB="acquired immunodeficiency syndrome" 12388 9 TI="acquired immunedeficiency syndrome" OR AB="acquired immunedeficiency syndrome" 6 10 TI="acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome" OR AB="acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome" 85 11 TI="acquired immune-deficiency syndrome" OR AB="acquired immune-deficiency syndrome" 4775 12 TI=("acquired immun*" NEAR/3 "deficiency syndrome") OR AB=("acquired immun*" NEAR/3 "deficiency syndrome") 4870 13 TI="HIV/AIDS" OR AB="HIV/AIDS" 29602 14 TI="AIDS" OR AB="AIDS" 162605 15 SO=("AIDS" OR "HIV") 15769 16 #15 OR #14 OR #13 OR #12 OR #11 OR #10 OR #9 OR #8 OR #7 OR #6 OR #5 OR #4 OR #3 OR #2 OR #1 490497 17 TI=(hospitaliz* or hospitalis* or rehospitaliz* or rehospitalis*) OR AB=(hospitaliz* or hospitalis* or rehospitaliz* or rehospitalis*) 294025 18 TI=(admiss* or readmiss* or re-admiss* or admit* or readmit* or re-admit*) OR AB=(admiss* or readmiss* or re-admiss* or admit* or readmit* or re-admit*) 532562 19 TI=("autopsy" or "post-mortem" or "postmortem") OR AB=("autopsy" or "post-mortem" or "postmortem") 106110 20 #19 OR #18 OR #17 855150 21 #20 AND #16 12222 22 #21 Timespan: 2014-01-01 to 2023-12-31 5236 4.7 Clarivate Analytics Web of Science SciELO Database name SciELO Database platform Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Dates of database coverage 2002-present Data last updated: 2023-04-22 Date searched 2023-04-26 Number of results 410 EndNote deduplication order 7 Results after duplications removed 156 Search strategy notes Two-letter codes at the beginning of search lines designate the fields to search. Fields codes used are: TI: title AB: abstract NEAR/n searches for words within n words of each other. * is used for truncation of words. $ finds 0 or 1 character in that placeholder (optional wildcard). # Search terms Results 1 TI="HIV" OR AB="HIV" 8633 2 TI=("hiv-1" OR "hiv1" OR "hiv-2" OR "hiv2") OR AB=("hiv-1" OR "hiv1" OR "hiv-2" OR "hiv2") 603 3 TI="human immunodeficiency virus" OR AB="human immunodeficiency virus" 1799 4 TI="human immunedeficiency virus" OR AB="human immunedeficiency virus" 1 5 TI="human immuno-deficiency virus" OR AB="human immuno-deficiency virus" 10 6 TI="human immune-deficiency virus" OR AB="human immune-deficiency virus" 17 7 TI=("human immun*" NEAR/3 "deficiency virus") OR AB=("human immun*" NEAR/3 "deficiency virus") 28 8 TI="acquired immunodeficiency syndrome" OR AB="acquired immunodeficiency syndrome" 432 9 TI="acquired immunedeficiency syndrome" OR AB="acquired immunedeficiency syndrome" 0 10 TI="acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome" OR AB="acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome" 3 11 TI="acquired immune-deficiency syndrome" OR AB="acquired immune-deficiency syndrome" 108 12 TI=("acquired immun*" NEAR/3 "deficiency syndrome") OR AB=("acquired immun*" NEAR/3 "deficiency syndrome") 114 13 TI="HIV/AIDS" OR AB="HIV/AIDS" 2449 14 TI="AIDS" OR AB="AIDS" 5684 15 SO=("AIDS" OR "HIV") 0 16 #15 OR #14 OR #13 OR #12 OR #11 OR #10 OR #9 OR #8 OR #7 OR #6 OR #5 OR #4 OR #3 OR #2 OR #1 11121 17 TI=(hospitaliz* or hospitalis* or rehospitaliz* or rehospitalis*) OR AB=(hospitaliz* or hospitalis* or rehospitaliz* or rehospitalis*) 13048 18 TI=(admiss* or readmiss* or re-admiss* or admit* or readmit* or re-admit*) OR AB=(admiss* or readmiss* or re-admiss* or admit* or readmit* or re-admit*) 17037 19 TI=("autopsy" or "post-mortem" or "postmortem") OR AB=("autopsy" or "post-mortem" or "postmortem") 1702 20 #19 OR #18 OR #17 27761 21 #20 AND #16 800 22 #21 Timespan: 2014-01-01 to 2023-12-31 410 4.8 WHO Global Index Medicus Database name Global Index Medicus Database platform WHO Dates of database coverage Complete database to search date Date searched 2023-04-26 Number of results 630 EndNote deduplication order 8 Results after duplications removed 402 Search strategy notes * is used for truncation of words. ("HIV" OR "hiv-1" OR "hiv1" OR "hiv-2" OR "hiv2" OR "human immunodeficiency virus" OR "human immunedeficiency virus" OR "human immuno-deficiency virus" OR "human immune-deficiency virus" OR "acquired immunodeficiency syndrome" OR "acquired immunedeficiency syndrome" OR "acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome" OR "acquired immune-deficiency syndrome" OR "HIV/AIDS" OR "AIDS" OR ab="AIDS") AND (hospitaliz* OR hospitalis* OR rehospitaliz* OR rehospitalis* OR admiss* OR readmiss* OR re-admiss* OR admit* OR readmit* OR re-admit* OR "autopsy" OR "post-mortem" OR "postmortem") AND (year_cluster:[2014 TO 2023]) 5. References (a) Falconer, Jane, Removing duplicates from an EndNote library. Library & Archives Service Blog: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. 2018. [online blog] http://blogs.lshtm.ac.uk/library/2018/12/07/removing-duplicates-from-an-endnote-library/. 2 Jane Falconer Document updated: 26 June 2023 User Support Services Librarian jane.falconer@lshtm.ac.uk