Patient-Centered Research Abstracts: Predictors of HIV Infection in Older Adults

PURPOSE: Providing clinicians with predictors to aid in the diagnosis of HIV disease in older adults should facilitate the identification of infected individuals. METHODS: A retrospective case-control study was conducted comparing 53 HIV-positive patients over the age of 55 who were age, gender, and race matched to 106 controls. The patients were drawn from the New Orleans Veterans Affairs Medical Center and a public hospital. Both institutions serve predominantly African-American, inner-city, indigent patients. Clinical predictors of interest were abstracted from medical records onto standardized data collection sheets by the authors. RESULTS: The mean age of the cases and controls was 62 (55–74), 60% were African-American, and 97% percent were male. Several positive findings in the past medical history were associated with an increased odds of testing HIV-positive. The mean values for several routinely tested laboratory studies were significantly different between the two groups. The mean globulin level for HIV-positive patients was 4.8 g/dL vs. 3.7 g/dL for HIV-negative patients (p = .001). The mean serum sodium for HIV-positive patients was 137 mg/dL vs. 140 mg/dL for HIV negative patients (p = .003) and the mean albumin was 3.0 g/dL vs. 3.6 g/dL (p < .001). Hemoglobin was significantly different between HIV-positive and HIV-negative individuals(mean 12.0 g/dL vs. 13.9 g/dL, p = .029). CONCLUSION: This data suggests that for patients over the age of 55, certain routine laboratory and medical history parameters may be useful in predicting patients at increased risk of being HIV-positive. A prospective study validating this data would be necessary to confirm this