Determinants of Mortality among Adult HIV-Infected Patients on Antiretroviral Therapy in a Rural Hospital in Southeastern Nigeria: A 5-Year Cohort Study

Are there differences in HIV retention in care between female and male patients in Indonesia? A multi-state analysis of a retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND

Little is known about HIV treatment outcomes in Indonesia, which has one of the most rapidly growing HIV epidemics worldwide.

METHODS

We examined possible differences in loss to follow-up (LTFU) and survival between HIV-infected females and males over a 7-year period in an HIV clinic in Bandung, West Java. Data imputation was performed on missing covariates and a multi-state Cox regression was used to investigate the effects of sex and other covariates on patient transitions among four states: (1) clinic enrollment with HIV, (2) initiation/continuation/re-initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART), (3) LTFU, and (4) death.

RESULTS

We followed 3215 patients (33% females), for a total of 8430 person-years. ART was used by 59% of patients at some point. One-year retention was 73% for females and 77% for males (p = 0.06). One-year survival was 98% for both females and males (p = 0.15). Females experienced a higher relative hazard to transition from HIV to LTFU (adjusted hazard ratio 1.21; 95% confidence interval 1.00-1.45), but this decreased after adjustments for clinical variables (aHR 0.94; 95% CI 0.79-1.11). Similarly, a lower relative hazard in females to transition from ART to death (aHR 0.59; 95% CI 0.35-0.99) decreased after adjustments for demographic variables.

CONCLUSION

This Indonesian cohort has low ART uptake and poor overall pre- and post-ART retention. Female-male differences in survival and retention were gone after adjusting for clinical and sociodemographic factors such as CD4 count and education level. Efforts should be made to improve retention among patients with lower education.

Mortality in Hospitalised HIV/AIDS Patients in a Tertiary Centre in Sub-Saharan Africa: Trends Between 2007 and 2015, Causes and Associated Factors

Background:

With easy accessibility to combination Antiretroviral Therapy (cART), mortality amongst hospitalized HIV/AIDS patients needs to be described.

Objective:

We aimed at determining the trends, causes and factors associated with in-hospital mortality amongst HIV/AIDS patients in the Douala General Hospital.

Methods:

We retrospectively reviewed hospitalisation records of HIV/AIDS patients hospitalized in the medical wards of the DGH from 2007 to 2015. Four cause-of-death categories were defined: 1. Communicable conditions and AIDS-defining malignancies, 2. Chronic non-communicable conditions and non-AIDS defining malignancies’, 3. Other non-communicable conditions and 4. Unknown conditions. Logistic regression was used to determine factors associated mortality.

Results:

We analyzed 891 eligible files. The mean age was 43 (standard deviation (SD): 10) years and median length of hospital stay was 9 (interquatile range (IQR)4 - 15) days. The overall all-cause mortality was 23.5% (95% CI: 20.8% - 26.4%). The category - communicable conditions and AIDS defining malignancies represented 79.9%, of deaths and this remained constant for each year during the study period. Tuberculosis was the most common specific cause of death (23.9%). Patients who had two (OR=2.35, 95%CI: 1.35 - 4.06) and more than two (OR=4.23, 95%CI: 1.62 – 11.12) opportunistic infections, a haemoglobin level less than 10g/l (OR=2.38, 95%CI: 1.58 - 3.59) had increased odds of dying.

Conclusion:

In-hospital mortality is high amongst HIV/AIDS patients at the Douala general hospital. The category - communicable conditions and AIDS defining malignancies - is still the main underlying cause of death. We hope that our findings will help to develop interventions aimed at reducing in-hospital mortality.

Incidence and predictors of loss to follow up among HIV-infected adults at Pawi General Hospital, northwest Ethiopia: competing risk regression model

Objective

This study was aimed at assessing the incidence of lost-to-follow-up and its predictors among HIV-positive adults after initiation into antiretroviral therapy at Pawi General Hospital, northwest Ethiopia.

Results

The overall cumulative incidence of lost-to-follow-up after ART initiation was high, 11.6 (95% CI 9.8–13.7) per 100 adult-years follow-up time. Independent significant predictors of lost to follow up were being aged 15–28 years (aSHR = 0.44; 95% CI 0.24–0.83), being on WHO clinical stage IV (aSHR = 2.09; 95% CI 1.02–3.13); and receiving isoniazid preventive therapy (aSHR = 0.11; 95% CI 0.06–0.18).

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s13104-018-3407-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Nutritional status and its effect on treatment outcome among HIV infected clients receiving HAART in Ethiopia: a cohort study

Purposes

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of nutritional status at the start of highly active anti-retroviral therapy on treatment outcomes among HIV/AIDS patients taking HAART at Jimma University Specialized Hospital.

Methods

We performed a retrospective cohort study involving 340 adults who started highly active anti-retroviral therapy. The patients have been clinically followed for 2 years. Data were extracted from paper based medical charts by trained data collectors from January 30 to February 28, 2014 using data collection format. We entered data into Epi data version 3.1 and then exported to SPSS for windows version 21. Predictors of CD4 change were identified using multivariable linear regression model. Time to an event (death) was estimated by Kaplan–Meier and predictors of mortality were identified by Cox proportional hazard model.

Results

Out of 340 patients, 42 patients died during the follow-up. Twenty-five (59.5 %) deaths were from malnourished group. Age, baseline CD4, sex, baseline HAART and marital status were significant predictors of immunologic recovery at different time points. Malnutrition was associated with lower CD4 recovery and greater hazard of death.

Conclusions

Malnutrition tends to decrease CD4 recovery and predisposes patient to early death.

Predictors of Loss to Follow-up Among HIV-infected Patients in a Rural South-Eastern Nigeria Hospital: A 5-year Retrospective Cohort Study

Background:

Patient attrition has been a challenge in managing HIV programs in resource-limited settings.

Aim:

This study reviews the predictors of loss to follow-up (LTFU) in our hospital and suggests the best practices for dealing with the issue.

Subjects and Methods:

A 5-year retrospective cohort study of 1256 HIV-infected patients. Baseline CD4 counts, age, gender, year of enrolment, and antiretroviral therapy combination regimen were considered in this study. Kaplan–Meier models were used to estimate the univariate time-to-LTFU and Cox proportional hazards models to identify the multivariate predictors of LTFU.

Results:

Twenty-four percent (23.9% [301/1256]) of patients were lost to follow-up. Baseline CD4 count, year of enrolment, and drug combination were significant predictors of LTFU. Patients enrolled earlier (2008/2009) were twice as likely to be LTFU compared with those enrolled later (2010–2013). Gender and age did not significantly predict LTFU nor confound other predictors.

Conclusion:

The program showed higher LTFU rates than most studies in Nigeria and Africa, maybe due to difficulties with the access to the hospital and possible treatment fatigue. This study recommends the provision of transportation subsidies and proactive patient follow-up with “peer-tracking” to reduce LTFU among HIV infected patients, especially in resource-limited settings.