Does Access to Health Care Impact Survival Time after Diagnosis of AIDS?

Lack of access to health care is often blamed for poor health outcomes, but this effect is not supported by existing HIV/AIDS literature. The authors examined the association between access to care and survival time after progression to AIDS, using survival analysis methods. This study combined data from two CDC sponsored studies of HIV-infected persons, a cross-sectional interview study and a longitudinal medical record review study. Study subjects included 752 persons who progressed to AIDS before December 31, 1999, and were patients at either of two major HIV care facilities in Detroit, MIchigan. Separate statistical models were used to test associations between survival time after meeting the criteria for AIDS and two indicators of access to health care: (1) perceived access to health care and (2) health care utilization patterns. Perceived access was not associated with survival time after AIDS, but patterns of health care utilization were significantly associated with survival time after AIDS (HR = 2.04, p < 0.001). Individuals who received a greater proportion of their care in the ER had a worse survival prognosis than those who received more of their health care in an outpatient clinic setting. It is crucial that we provide HIV-infected populations with tools that enable them to access a regular source of health care.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/63272/1/10872910252972276.pd

Improving the Representativeness of Behavioral and Clinical Surveillance for Persons with HIV in the United States: The Rationale for Developing a Population-Based Approach

The need for a new surveillance approach to understand the clinical outcomes and behaviors of people in care for HIV evolved from the new challenges for monitoring clinical outcomes in the HAART era, the impact of the epidemic on an increasing number of areas in the US, and the need for representative data to describe the epidemic and related resource utilization and needs. The Institute of Medicine recommended that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Heath Resources and Services Administration coordinate efforts to survey a random sample of HIV-infected persons in care, in order to more accurately measure the need for prevention and care services. The Medical Monitoring Project (MMP) was created to meet these needs. This manuscript describes the evolution and design of MMP, a new nationally representative clinical outcomes and behavioral surveillance system, and describes how MMP data will be used locally and nationally to identify care and treatment utilization needs, and to plan for prevention interventions and services

Quality of Care for HIV Infection Provided by Ryan White Program-Supported versus Non-Ryan White Program-Supported Facilities

BACKGROUND: The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Care Act (now the Treatment Modernization Act; Ryan White Program, or RWP) is a source of federal public funding for HIV care in the United States. The Health Services and Resources Administration requires that facilities or providers who receive RWP funds ensure that HIV health services are accessible and delivered according to established HIV-related treatment guidelines. We used data from population-based samples of persons in care for HIV infection in three states to compare the quality of HIV care in facilities supported by the RWP, with facilities not supported by the RWP. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Within each area (King County in Washington State; southern Louisiana; and Michigan), a probability sample of patients receiving care for HIV infection in 1998 was drawn. Based on medical records abstraction, information was collected on prescription of antiretroviral therapy according to treatment recommendations, prescription of prophylactic therapy, and provision of recommended vaccinations and screening tests. We calculated population-level estimates of the extent to which HIV care was provided according to then-current treatment guidelines in RWP-supported and non-RWP-supported facilities. For all treatment outcomes analyzed, the compliance with care guidelines was at least as good for patients who received care at RWP-supported (vs non-RWP supported) facilities. For some outcomes in some states, delivery of recommended care was significantly more common for patients receiving care in RWP-supported facilities: for example, in Louisiana, patients receiving care in RWP-supported facilities were more likely to receive indicated prophylaxis for Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia and Mycobacterium avium complex, and in all three states, women receiving care in RWP-supported facilities were more likely to have received an annual Pap smear. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The quality of HIV care provided in 1998 to patients in RWP-supported facilities was of equivalent or better quality than in non-RWP supported facilities; however, there were significant opportunities for improvement in all facility types. Data from population-based clinical outcomes surveillance data can be used as part of a broader strategy to evaluate the quality of publicly-supported HIV care

HIV-1 Transmission during Early Infection in Men Who Have Sex with Men: A Phylodynamic Analysis

<div><p>Background</p><p>Conventional epidemiological surveillance of infectious diseases is focused on characterization of incident infections and estimation of the number of prevalent infections. Advances in methods for the analysis of the population-level genetic variation of viruses can potentially provide information about donors, not just recipients, of infection. Genetic sequences from many viruses are increasingly abundant, especially HIV, which is routinely sequenced for surveillance of drug resistance mutations. We conducted a phylodynamic analysis of HIV genetic sequence data and surveillance data from a US population of men who have sex with men (MSM) and estimated incidence and transmission rates by stage of infection.</p><p>Methods and Findings</p><p>We analyzed 662 HIV-1 subtype B sequences collected between October 14, 2004, and February 24, 2012, from MSM in the Detroit metropolitan area, Michigan. These sequences were cross-referenced with a database of 30,200 patients diagnosed with HIV infection in the state of Michigan, which includes clinical information that is informative about the recency of infection at the time of diagnosis. These data were analyzed using recently developed population genetic methods that have enabled the estimation of transmission rates from the population-level genetic diversity of the virus. We found that genetic data are highly informative about HIV donors in ways that standard surveillance data are not. Genetic data are especially informative about the stage of infection of donors at the point of transmission. We estimate that 44.7% (95% CI, 42.2%–46.4%) of transmissions occur during the first year of infection.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>In this study, almost half of transmissions occurred within the first year of HIV infection in MSM. Our conclusions may be sensitive to un-modeled intra-host evolutionary dynamics, un-modeled sexual risk behavior, and uncertainty in the stage of infected hosts at the time of sampling. The intensity of transmission during early infection may have significance for public health interventions based on early treatment of newly diagnosed individuals.</p><p><i>Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary</i></p></div

HIV transmission model and phylogeny.

<p>Top: A flow diagram describing the mathematical model fitted to surveillance time series and the HIV-1 phylogeny. Arrows of different colors represent the time-dependent rates at which transitions occur. Infected individuals progress from EHI to AIDS and may also become diagnosed (“D.”), as represented by black and green arrows. Orange arrows represent natural mortality. Incidence occurs at the rate λ(<i>t</i>) (red arrow). A more detailed diagram is shown in <a href="http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001568#pmed.1001568.s007" target="_blank">Figure S6</a>. Bottom: HIV-1 phylogeny comprising virus samples from 662 patients and ancestral states estimated using the methods in <a href="http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001568#pmed.1001568-Volz2" target="_blank">[18]</a>. The tree has been randomly downsampled to include 250 terminals for perspective. Colors at the terminals of the phylogeny represent the estimated stage of infection of the host at the time of sampling based on clinical data. Colors on the interior of the phylogeny represent the estimated stage of infection of the host harboring virus that is ancestral to the sample. Yellow corresponds to lineages that are likely to represent infections from outside of the DMA MSM risk group.</p