The checklist is a comprehensive appraisal tool that can assist health sciences librarians and others in choosing search filters. The checklist reports filter design methods and search performance measures, such as sensitivity and precision. The checklist can also aid filter developers by indicating information on core methods that should be reported to help assess filter suitability. The generalizability of the checklist for non-methods filters remains to be explored.

Initiating highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) with low CD4 counts or AIDS-defining illnesses (ADIs) increases risk of treatment failure and death. We examined factors associated with late initiation among 18-to 29-year-olds within the Canadian Observational Cohort (CANOC) collaboration, a multi-site study of HIV-positive persons who initiated HAART after 2000. Late initiation was defined as beginning HAART with a CD4 count <200 cells/mm 3 and/or having a baseline ADI. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify independent correlates of late initiation. In total, 1026 individuals (422 from British Columbia, 400 from Ontario, and 204 from Quebec) met our age criteria. At HAART initiation, median age was 27 years (interquartile range, 24, 28 years). A total of 412 individuals (40%) identified as late initiators. Late initiation was associated with female gender, age >25 years at initiation, initiating treatment in earlier years, and having higher baseline viral load. The high number of young adults in our cohort starting HAART late indicates important target populations for specialized services, increased testing, and linkages to care.

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here are approximately 65,000 people living with HIV in Canada, the majority residing in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. Nearly half of these infections (48%) are among gay and other men who have sex with men (MSM). 1,2 Other important groups include people who use injection drugs (IDUs), Aboriginal or First Nations people, and men and women from endemic countries. 1,2 MSM can be found in all three groups. On average, 2,300-4,300 new infections occur every year in Canada, with the number of infections exceeding the number of deaths. 1,2 Since it was first made widely available in mid-1996, highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has transformed HIV from a disease associated with high rates of mortality and short life span to one characterized by much lower rates of mortality where people can live for a much longer period of time and the infection can be treated as a manageable chronic condition. 3,4 HAART is made available in Canada through a variety of provincial and territorial programs, ranging from full coverage for all HIV-infected individuals in certain provinces to special coverage categories or coverage through programs with income-based deductibles. 1 The range of regimes available to those who need them also varies across the country. 5 We undertook this study to characterize temporal, regional and demographic differences in HIV-related mortality from 1987 to 2008. Previous work has shown that rates of mortality vary by province, gender and calendar year; however, most of this work was done prior to the onset of HAART. 6-8 To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to examine trends across provincial and territorial lines in Canada since the development of HAART and over such an extended period of time. METHODS Our analysis of HIV-related mortality rates in Canada over a 22-year period was based upon established demographic methods. These techniques have been described in detail elsewhere, 6,7 but below we briefly outline how they were used in this study.