Summary: Has there been a change in the duration of periods of hospitalization during the first two years after diagnosis of AIDS between patients diagnosed before 1988, compared with patients diagnosed since 1988? A cohort of 212 AIDS patients was studied. They were diagnosed before December 31, 1990 and were hospitalized between January 1, 1981 and March 31, 1993 in the University Hospital of Geneva, Switzerland. Overall, the duration of hospitalization did not seem to differ according to the year of AIDS diagnosis, though the more recently diagnosed patients were hospitalized with a more advanced level of immunosuppression. However, the pattern of hospitalization was slightly different. The periods of hospitalization for subjects diagnosed before 1988 were relatively longer soon after the AIDS diagnosis and at a late stage in the course of the disease, whereas for the more recent patients the lengths of hospital stays were more uniform during the whole course of the diseas

Gabriel, Victor

Morabia, Alfredo

Pechère, Marc

Vanhems, Philippe

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Soz.- Pr~ventivmed. 42 (1997) 314-319 0303-8408/97/050314-06 $1.50 + 0.20/0 9 Birkh~iuser Verlag, Basel, 1997 Philippe Vanhems ~,2, Alfredo Morabia 3, Marc Pech~re 1, Victor Gabriel ~, Bernard Hirschel ~ 7 Infectious Diseases, Geneva University Hospital 2 Research Center, H6tel Dieu de MontrOal, Montreal 3 Clinical Epidemiology, Geneva University Hospital Duration of hospitalization during the first two years after AIDS diagnosis: A descriptive study Summary Has there been a chanqe in the duration of periods of hospitalization during the first two years after diagnosis of AIDS between patients diagnosed before 1988, compared with patients diagnosed since 1988? A cohort of 212 AIDS patients was studied. They were diagnosed before December 31, 1990 an d were hospitalized between January t, 1981 and March 31, 1993 in the Universi~ Hospital of Geneva, Switzerland. Over- all, the duration of hospitalization did not seem to differ according to the year of AIDS diagnosis, though the more recently diagnosed patients were hospitalized with a more advanced level of immunosuppression. However, the pattern of hospitalization was slightly different. The periods of hospitalization for subjects diagnosed before 1988 were relatively longer soon after the AIDS diagnosis and at a late stage in the course of the disease, whereas for the more recent patients the lengths of hospital stays were more uniform during the whole course of the disease. It is still unclear whether improve- ments in prophylaxis and medical care have reduced the time patients spend in hospital after AIDS dia- gnosis. Several reports indicate that the average duration of hos- pitalization of AIDS patients has decreased since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic 2-4, but insuf- ficient attention has been given to the possibility of cross-sectional bias. This was suggested to us when analyzing the results for the Geneva component of the Swiss HIV cohort study. In a first cross- sectional analysis, we found and reported a linear decline in cumu- lative length of hospitalization of AIDS patients between 1981 and 19905. However, a subsequent ana- lysis stratified into cohorts accord- ing to year of AIDS diagnosis did not confirm the decline. In addi- tion, it suggested that the timing of hospitalization varied accord- ing from cohort to cohort. More recently diagnosed AIDS patients were hospitalized for shorter pe- riods early after diagnosis, but for longer periods later on. In the present paper we describe the duration of hospital stays during the two years after diagno- sis. We studied the hospital days used by AIDS patients rather than exploring the hospitalisation histories of individual patients because we were interested in esti- mating the resources provided by the institution. We stratified pa- tients on the basis of AIDS diagno- sis before or after 1988, because this was the year of the introduc- tion of zidovudine and Pneurno- cystis carinii (PCP) prophylaxis. We also stratified on duration of follow-up, to adjust for the survival bias involved in assessing hospital stays. All patients were followed for at least 6 months after the AIDS diagnosis to allow the identi- fication of patterns of repeated hospitalizations. Methods Population All patients were eligible for the present study who 1) met the 1987 CDC criteria for AIDS 6, 2) were hospitalized before December 31, 1990, for more than one day at the University Hospital of Geneva (the Canton of Geneva has one of the highest incidence rates of 314 Soz.- Pr~ventivmed. 1997; 42 :314-319 AIDS in EuropeT-8). The sample of 212 patients represented 83 % of all AIDS cases diagnosed uring that period in the Canton of Geneva according to the data of the Geneva Department of Pu- blic Health 8. Sociodemographic variables (sex, age, risk factors), and date of AIDS diagnosis and every admission to discharge from hospital, were abstracted from medical charts and from the Swiss HIV cohort study (SHCS) data- base using standardized forms. The SHCS has been described in detail elsewhere 9. Briefly, the co- hort comprises all HIV positive patients followed in University Hospitals in Switzerland. In the SCHS, the major risk factor for AIDS and the date of initial dia- gnosis of AIDS are determined for all subjects by their physicians. The level of CD4+ T lymphocytes was determined as close as possible to the time of diagnosis by standard- ized methods 10. Statistical analysis The statistical analysis was restrict- ed to subjects followed for 6 months to 2 years from the day of AIDS diagnosis, to the last infor- mation date available or death. We report he categorical data in a per- centage and frequency table, and continuous data as means (+_ stan- dard deviation). We calculated the average of duration of hospital stays per semester after the AIDS diagnosis, stratified on diagnosis before and after 1988. The average duration of hospital stays was the mean of cumulated ays spent in hospital during a given period of time, divided by the number of hos- pital admissions. The comparisons of categorical data were done using the chi-squared test, and the com- parisons of continuous date were assessed by the Mann-Whitney U- test or the t-test on logarithmic transformations. Resu l ts  In the whole sample (n = 212), the mean age was 34.9 years (_+ 9.2 years), 81% were male, 43 % were homosexual or bisexual (HS/BS), and 35% were intravenous drug users (IVDU). Table i shows that there were no significant differen- ces in sex, age, and risk factors whether AIDS was diagnosed before (n=71) or since 1988 (n = 141). Neither were there sig- nificant differences in frequency of opportunistic infections. Thirty five percent of patients who had AIDS before 1988 received zidovu- dine, and 71% of those diagnosed since 1988 (p=0.001). Patients diagnosed since 1988 had lower CD4 counts at the time of AIDS diagnosis (median = 60/mm 3) than patients diagnosed before 1988 (median 120/mm 3,p <0.0001) (not shown in a table). Table 2 shows the number of hos- pitalizations and their durations by semester after AIDS diagnosis, stratified on the time of diagnosis. In each case the analysis was done within a period of time for which the patients were known to be ali- ve. The results are globally similar, but for the patients with a follow- up lasting > 18 months, the pattern of hospitalization durations differ- ed strongly by semester according to the period of AIDS diagnosis (Figure 1, Figure 2). For the pa- tients diagnosed before 1988, short- er hospital stays occurred at the median period of follow-up. Lengths of hospital stays seem to be less variable for the recent patients. Year o f  A IDS diagnosis  1981-1990 1981-1987 1988-1990 n = 212 n = 71 n = 141 Mean age (mean • SD) 34.9 + 9.7 34.7 _+ 9.9 34.9 +_ 9.7 Gender (n, %) Male 172 (81) 57 (80) 115 (82) Female 40 (19) 14 (20) 26 (18) Risk factors (n, %) Homo/bisexual 92 (43) 31 (44) 61 (43) Intravenous drug users 75 (35) 23 (32) 52 (37) Heterosexual 23 (11) 7 (t0) 16 (11) Others 22 (11) 10 (14) t2 (9) AIDS defining dlacnosis (n, %) CMV* 20 (9) t3 ,~18) 7 (5) PCP** 82 (39) 19 (27) 63 (45) Toxoplasmosis encephalitis 30 (14) 8 (4) 22 (16) Kaposi sarcoma 42 (20) 15 (21) 27 (19) Mycobacteriosis 16 (8) 8 (4) 8 (6) HIV-dementia 2 t {10) 9 (4) ] 2 ',9) * CMV: retinitis or col tis due to cytomegatowrus - PCP: Pneurnocystis carinii pneumonia, Table 1, Characteristics of AIDS patients by year of diagnosis, Genevaf Switzerland, 1981 - 1990. 315 Table 2. Mean number of hospital days according to the year of AIDS diagnosis and to the duration of follow-up. 40 30 O3 20 O 10 0 Year of AIDS 11987 or  earlier 1988 or later 1 2 3 Semesters after AIDS diagnosis Figure 1. Average hospital days per semester for AIDS patients stratified on the year of diagnosis for patients followed > 18 months. Discussion The present analysis of the Geneva component of the Swiss HIV co- hort study suggests that patients diagnosed as having AIDS since 1988 spent the same amount of time in hospital during the first two years after diagnosis as those diagnosed before 1988. Neverthe- less, the distribution of the dura- tion of periods of hospitalisation varied according to the date of diagnosis. The present study results seem to contradict previous cross-sectional analyses of the medial care of AIDS patients which have indicat- ed a time trend towards less hos- pitalization 1-3. Seage et al 1 found that US patients admitted during the first year of a study remained hospitalized on average 3.1 days longer than patients admitted during the second year of the study. According to Markson et al.3, hos- pitalization duration of New York AIDS patients has steadily declin- ed at a rate of one day per year since 1984. However, these analy- ses may have been confounded by a cohort effect, hospitalization in more recently diagnosed patients being delayed but the overall duration not reduced. An English report has found, as we do, that the average time spent in hospital had increased for more recently dia- gnosed AIDS patients: it was 26 % for the AIDS patients diagnosed between 1983 and 1988 and 30% for those diagnosed between 1988 and 1990 (calculation from Table 3 of ref. 4). We can speculate about the pos- sible reasons why there is no decrease of time spent in hospital by the more recently-diagnosed patients. The total time of hospita- lization stayed the same but pa- tients were hospitalized later in the 316 Soz.- Praventivmed. 1997; 42:3 t 4-3 I9 40, CO 30, ~ ~ 20: ~i~ 10 NrSCN~ NN~2 Year of AIDS ~4'~!! 1987 or earlier I 1988 or later 1 2 3 4 Semesters after AIDS Figure 2. Average hospital days per semester for AIDS patients stratified on the year of diagnosis for patients followed > 24 months. course of HIV infection, as is shown by their lower CD4 counts at the time of AIDS diagnosis. Thus, preventive measures, uch as pentamidine inhalations 11-13 and zidovudine administration 14,1s now postpone the diagnosis of AIDS until immunosnppression is more advanced. After diagnosis, the mean number of hospital days is table for recent patients but a dif- ferent pattern emerged for the patients diagnosed earlier. The pat- tern suggests that patients diagnos- ed before 1988 spent longer in hos- pital soon after diagnosis, because diagnostic and therapeutic proce- dures were less codified than they are today. As immunosuppres- sion progresses, diseases uch as disseminated mycobacterial in- fections, cachexia and diarrhea, AIDS-related dementia, and lym- phoma, are less easily managed outside the hospital, so that more hospitalization is required during the second year after diagnosis. This effect was more pronounced for the patients in the earlier group, for whom prophylaxis regimens, especially against Pneurnocystis carinii pneumonia, encephalitis toxoplasmosis and mycobacterial infections, were less used. A limitation of the present study was the lack of information on hos- pital service consumption by HIV positive patients prior to the dia- gnosis of AIDS. The changes in the pattern of hospitalization during the first two years of AIDS diagno- sis that we observed may be related to complementary changes during the pre-AIDS period. A study 4 found that the number of hospital days spent by HIV positive patients without AIDS doubled between 1986 and 1990. Future studies should also analyse the pre-AIDS period to clarify fully the impact on medical services on time spent in hospital by patients infected by HIV before AIDS in the era of HIV protease inhibitors. Another limitation was that the analysis was carried out only for patients with a follow-up period > 6 months. This excluded the patients with severe disease who died soon after the AIDS diagnosis. The pattern of hospitalizations for these patients with a poor progno- sis would have needed a separate analysis. A strength of the present study is that complete information on hos- pitalization during the first two years after AIDS diagnosis was available for 83 % of all AIDS pa- tients diagnosed in the Canton of Geneva between 1981 and 1990. Detailed information on every hospitalization episode allowed us to compute crude descriptive sta- tistics of hospital stay according to the duration of follow-up. Finally, the analysis was performed for AIDS cohorts according to year of diagnosis. Even though the pa- tients analysed in the present study were diagnosed before December 31, 1990, and the follow-up ended in March 1993, it is reasonable to believe that these results remain valid for recently diagnosed AIDS patients ince there has not been a change in patients care since 1993 as profound as that of 1988. In summary, improvement in AIDS prophylaxis and therapy may have delayed the beginning major periods of hospitalization after diagnosis, but they have not reduced the overall time spent hos- pitalized during the first two years after diagnosis. These findings may be at odds with current beliefs on the evolution of time spent hospitalized by AIDS patients, but they deserve to be considered seriously, since they could have important implications for the evo- lution of hospital needs and costs related to the AIDS epidemic. 317 Soz,. Pr~ven:tivmed 1997 42:314.319 Zusammenfassung 318 References 1 Seage GR, Landers S, Lamb GA, Epstein AM. Effect of changing patterns of care and duration of survival on the cost of treating the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Am J Public Health 1990; 80: 835- 839. 2 Kaplowitz LG, Turshen 1J, Myers PS, et al. Medical care costs of patients with acquired immuno- deficiency syndrome in Richmond, Va. Arch Intern Med 1988; 148: 1793-1797. 3 Markson LE, Turner B J, Fanning TR. Duration of medicaid AIDS hospitalizations - Variation by season, stage and year. Am J Public Health 1992; 82:578-580. 4 Johnson AM, Shergold C, Hawkins A, Miller R, Adler MW. Patterns of hospital care for patients with HIV infections and AIDS. J Epi- demiol Commun Health 1993; 47: 232-237. 5 Vanhems P,, Morabia A, Gabriel V,, Chamot E, Hirschel B. Evolution of epidemiologic and hospital care characteristics of AIDS patients in Geneva between 1981 and 1990. Abstract in: Program and abstracts of the European Regional meeting of the International Epidemio- logical Association. Basel, August 1991. International Epidemiologi- cal Association; 1991:186. 6 Centers for Disease Control. Revi- sion of the CDC surveillance case definition for AIDS. Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 1987; 36:3S-15S. 7 Anonymous. Statistics from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control. AIDS 1991; 5:119-120. 8 Anonymous. AIDS information. Bulletin de l'Office FOdOral de la Santo Publique 1990; 46: 750. 9. Engel RR, Samuel MC, Rieder HL, Billo N, Somaini B. Completeness of AIDS reporting in Switzerland: astudy based on deaths between December 1987 and June 1990. AIDS 1992; 6:1385-1389. 10 Ledergerber B, yon Overbeck J, Egger M, et al. The Swiss HIV Co- Soz.- Pr~ventivmed. 1997; 42:3 !4-319 hort Study: Rationale, organization and selected baseline character- istics. Soz Pr~iventivmed 1994; 39:387-394. 11 Hirschel t?, Lazzarin A, Chopard P, et al. A controlled study of inhaled pentamidine for primary preven- tion of Pneurnocystis carinii pneu- monia. N Engl J Med 1991; 324:1079-1083. 12 Heald A, Flepp M, Chave JP, et al. Treatment for cerebral toxoplas- mosis protects against Pneurno- cystis carinii pneumonia n patients with AIDS. Ann Intern Med 1991; 115:760-763. 13 Chien SM, Rawji M, Mintz S, Rach~ lis A, Chan CK. Changes in hos- 14 15 pital admissions pattern in patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection in the era of Pneu- mocystis carinii prophylaxis. Chest 1992; 102:1035-1039. Fishl ]VIA, Richman DD, Grieco MH, et al. The efficacy of azido- thymidine (AZT) in the treatment of patients with AIDS and AIDS- related complex. N Engl J Med 1987; 317:185-191. Cooper DA, Gatell JM, Kroon S, et al. Zidovudine in persons with asymptomatic HIV infection and CD4+ cell counts greater than 400 per cubic millimeter. N Engl J Med 1993; 329:297-303. Acknowledgments The authors thank Eric Chamot, MD, PhD, and Chantal Berti for their assis- tance in the data collection. Address for correspondence Alfredo Morabia, MD, PhD Clinical Epidemiology Division Rue Micheli-du-Crest 24 CH-1211 Geneva 14 319 

Duration of hospitalization during the first two years after AIDS diagnosis: A descriptive study

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Duration of hospitalization during the first two years after AIDS diagnosis: A descriptive study

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