Poverty, hunger, education, and residential status impact survival in HIV.
Despite combination antiretroviral therapy (ART), HIV infected people have higher mortality than non-infected. Lower socioeconomic status (SES) predicts higher mortality in many chronic illnesses but data in people with HIV is limited. We evaluated 878 HIV infected individuals followed from 1995 to 2005. Cox proportional hazards for all-cause mortality were estimated for SES measures and other factors. Mixed effects analyses examined how SES impacts factors predicting death. The 200 who died were older, had lower CD4 counts, and higher viral loads (VL). Age, transmission category, education, albumin, CD4 counts, VL, hunger, and poverty predicted death in univariate analyses; age, CD4 counts, albumin, VL, and poverty in the multivariable model. Mixed models showed associations between (1) CD4 counts with education and hunger; (2) albumin with education, homelessness, and poverty; and (3) VL with education and hunger. SES contributes to mortality in HIV infected persons directly and indirectly, and should be a target of health policy in this population.
McMahon
James
J
Department of Medicine, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA 02111, USA. jmcmahon@tuftsmedicalcenter.org
Wanke
Christine
C
Terrin
Norma
N
Skinner
Sally
S
Knox
Tamsin
T
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D019380:Anti-HIV Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D023241:Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active; D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D006815:Hunger; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008404:Massachusetts / Q000453:epidemiology; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012237:Rhode Island / Q000453:epidemiology; D012923:Social Class; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D015996:Survival Rate; D019562:Viral Load
D019380:Anti-HIV Agents