IMPORTANCEThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has required a shift in health care delivery platforms, necessitating a new reliance on telemedicine. OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether inequities are present in telemedicine use and video visit use for telemedicine visits during the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTSIn this cohort study, a retrospective medical record review was conducted from March 16 to May 11, 2020, of all patients scheduled for telemedicine visits in primary care and specialty ambulatory clinics at a large academic health system. Age, race/ethnicity, sex, language, median household income, and insurance type were all identified from the electronic medical record. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURESA successfully completed telemedicine visit and video (vs telephone) visit for a telemedicine encounter. Multivariable models were used to assess the association between sociodemographic factors, including sex, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and language, and the use of telemedicine visits, as well as video use specifically. RESULTSA total of 148 402 unique patients (86 055 women [58.0%]; mean [SD] age, 56.5 [17.7] years) had scheduled telemedicine visits during the study period; 80 780 patients (54.4%) completed visits. Of 78 539 patients with completed visits in which visit modality was specified, 35 824 (45.6%) were conducted via video, whereas 24 025 (56.9%) had a telephone visit. In multivariable models, older age (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.85 [95% CI, 0.83-0.88] for those aged [55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64] aOR, 0.75 [95% CI, for those aged 65-74 years; aOR, 0.67 [95% CI, 0.64-0.70] for those aged Ն75 years), Asian race (aOR, 0.69 [95% CI, 0.66-0.73]), non-English language as the patient's preferred language (aOR, 0.84 [95% CI, 0.78-0.90]), and Medicaid insurance (aOR, 0.93 [95% CI, 0.89-0.97]) were independently associated with fewer completed telemedicine visits.

Tested and effective adherence-enhancing interventions should be increasingly moved into implementation in routine programme and care settings, accompanied by rigorous evaluation of implementation impact and performance. Major evidence gaps on adherence-enhancing interventions remain, in particular, on the cost-effectiveness of interventions in different settings, long-term effectiveness, and effectiveness of interventions in specific populations, such as pregnant and breastfeeding women.

The success of potent antiretroviral treatment (ART) for HIV infection is primarily determined by the level of medication adherence. We systematically review the evidence on effectiveness of interventions to enhance ART adherence in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where four fifths of the more than five million people receiving ART live. We identified 26 relevant publications reporting on 25 studies, conducted between 2003 and 2010, of behavioural, cognitive, biological, structural, and combination interventions. The majority (16) of the studies took place in hospital outpatient facilities in urban settings. Studies differed widely in design, sample size, length of follow-up, and outcome measurement. Despite study diversity and limitations, the evidence to date suggest that treatment supporters, directly observed therapy, cell phone short message services, diary cards and food rations and can be effective in increasing adherence in some settings in SSA. However, our synthesis of studies also shows that some interventions are unlikely to produce large or lasting effects, while other interventions are effective in some but not in other settings, emphasizing the need for more research, in particular, RCTs, to allow examination of the influence of context and particular features of intervention content on effectiveness. Important avenues for future work include intervention targeting and selection of interventions based on behavioural theories relevant to SSA.