title: Determinants of HIV disease progression among homosexual men registered in the Tricontinental Seroconverter Study.
abstract: Data on 403 homosexual/bisexual men with documented dates of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seroconversion were merged. All subjects originated from cohort studies that started between 1982 and 1984 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands; San Francisco, California; Sydney, Australia; and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. With respect to the four geographic locations, no statistically significant differences in progression time from HIV seroconversion to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and death as well as in AIDS diagnoses patterns could be demonstrated. The median time from HIV seroconversion to AIDS was 8.3 years, that from HIV seroconversion to death was 8.9 years, and that from AIDS to death was 17 months. The authors evaluated HIV disease progression with respect to demographic, clinical, and behavioral cofactors. Younger age and use of prophylaxis against Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia were significantly related to slower progression from seroconversion to death. In addition, an association between slower progression and earlier dates of seroconversion was found. No relation of sexual behavior; history of sexually transmitted diseases; or use of alcohol, tobacco, and recreational drugs with rates of disease progression could be demonstrated.
authors.affiliation: Municipal Health Service, Department of Public Health, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Veugelers
authors.forename: K A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Page
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tindall
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Schechter
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Moss
authors.forename: W W
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Winkelstein
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Craib
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Charlebois
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Coutinho
mesh_terms: D015492:AIDS Serodiagnosis; D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000401:mortality* / Q000503:physiopathology; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015331:Cohort Studies; D018450:Disease Progression; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000503:physiopathology*; D018451:Homosexuality, Male; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D013997:Time Factors