Demographic Correlates of Survival in Adult HIV Patients Registered at ART Centers in Andhra Pradesh, India: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Abstract

Limited research has been published particularly focused on demographic and programme indicators associated with survival and mortality among HIV/AIDS-patients in Indian scenario. Therefore, this study is designed to estimate the survival and associated demographic correlates among HIV-patients who registered at 31 functional ART centers in the state of Andhra Pradesh (AP), India during 2005-09. A total of 56, 992 adult (≥15 years) HIV/AIDS cases (32, 869 men and 29, 123 women) were registered in AP. Mortality density per 1000 person-years of ART registration was estimated across the demographic and programmatic variables. Cox-proportional hazard model was used to determine the relative hazard of mortality. More than 50% of PLHIV were died within the 6 months of ART registration. The overall mortality density was estimated as 28 per 1000 person-years at registration. The life-time median survival was estimated around 12 years that was slight higher among females. The stratified Kaplan Meier survival analysis illustrated that the survival probability was significantly different (p < 0.001) across the age and gender. Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that survival was significantly associated with age, sex, education, occupation, delay in ART registration and mode of transmission. Such information is useful for institution of intervention measures to reduce risk of death among PLHIV.