Brighton Observational Cohort of Women living with HIV, BOW HIV Cohort
Research type
Research Database
IRAS ID
305767
Contact name
Yvonne Gilleece
Contact email
Research summary
Brighton Observational cohort of Women living with HIV, BOW HIV Cohort
REC name
South Central - Oxford C Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/SC/0391
Date of REC Opinion
19 Dec 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion
Data collection arrangements
The BOW HIV Cohort will be a collection of observational clinical and investigation data from routine HIV appointments for all women aged >18 years living with HIV attending the Lawson Unit HIV Clinic in Brighton. Women can opt-out from involvement in this database at any time. Data collected will be over a 10 year period and will include demographic data, information on HIV care and treatment, basic health checks (blood pressure/weight), sexual and reproductive health, psychosocial and mental health assessments, other medical conditions and their treatment, bone and cardiovascular health, smoking status and drug and alcohol use.
The Chief Investigator will identify researchers with an interest in HIV in women to collect this data which will be entered onto a secure database called REDCap. All database users will access REDCap through a secure login page and data will be stored within a secure network and backed up regularly.
Data will be treated in a confidential manner in accordance with Caldecott principles. Participants will be identified using unique study specific identifiers for each site/participant. The only patient identifiable data that will be used are the study participant’s data ID and year of birth.Research programme
In 2019, 30,388 women living with HIV received HIV care in the UK, 36% of whom are aged >50. A further 15,360 women, are aged between 35-49 years. Together this group is likely to experience an increasing number of health-related problems over the next 5-10 years, including problems relating to low bone mineral density (BMD), fracture risk, cardiovascular disease, frailty, mental ill health and neurocognition. Women remained underrepresented in clinical trials, therefore good data on their optimal management is lacking. Approximately 250 women attend the Lawson Unit for HIV care via routine clinics and/or the specialist women’s Sunflower clinic, unique in its design and service delivery which strictly adheres to national/ international guidance on HIV care for all women living with HIV in Sussex. Data collected in the BOW HIV Cohort will be routine clinic data on all women attending the Lawson Unit and aims to understand health issues they face, and ultimately to address future healthcare needs. This may also influence national delivery of HIV care for women. For certain outcomes we will do this in collaboration with other well recognised HIV research centres to increase the power of any findings and to improve the lives of women.
Research database title
Brighton Observational cohort of Women living with HIV, BOW HIV Cohort
Establishment organisation
University Hospitals Sussex NHS Trust
Establishment organisation address
Eastern Road,
Brighton
BN2 5BE