Healthcare use by varied highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) strata: HAART use, discontinuation, and naivety.
OBJECTIVE
Prior reports have found a temporal association between the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and population rates of health service use among persons living with HIV. Our objective was to explore further the effect of HAART by comparing healthcare use among persons who use HAART and persons who discontinue HAART to that among HAART-naive and HIV-negative persons.


METHODS
Longitudinal analyses of 1485 women with and at-risk for HIV who contributed data to the Women's Interagency HIV Study between April 1997 and March 2000.


RESULTS
Compared with HAART-naive women, those using HAART had a higher probability of more than three primary care visits per 6 months [odds ratio (OR), 1.38; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.16-1.65), a lower probability of more than one emergency room visit per 6 months (OR, 0.75; CI, 0.59-0.95), and a lower probability of more than one hospitalization per 6 months (OR, 0.67; CI, 0.51-0.88). Compared with HAART-naive women, women who had discontinued HAART had a higher frequency of primary care visits (OR, 1.57; CI, 1.26-1.97) but did not demonstrate a significant change in emergency room or hospital use. Modeling of a standardized population HIV-positive women without AIDS indicated hospitalization and emergency room use among HAART users was equivalent to that among HIV-negative women.


CONCLUSIONS
HIV-positive HAART users (without AIDS) exhibited emergency room and hospitalization use patterns equivalent to those of HIV-negative women. Furthermore, the discontinuation of HAART was associated with a loss of the reduction in hospital use that was achieved with HAART.
Palacio
Herminia
H
Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services, 2223 West Loop South, Houston, TX 77027, USA.
Li
Xiuhong
X
Wilson
Tracey E
TE
Sacks
Henry
H
Cohen
Mardge H
MH
Richardson
Jean
J
Young
Mary
M
Muñoz
Alvaro
A
D000328:Adult; D023241:Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States; D014932:Women's Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*