Re-engagement and influencing factors of patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection during anti-retroviral therapy in Yunnan Province / 中华传染病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the situation of patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection who re-engaging treatment after dropping-out during anti-retroviral therapy (ART), and the influencing factors of ART re-engagement in Yunnan Province.Methods:The total dropping-out cases of ART up to December 31, 2018, including cases of lost-of-follow-up and withdrawing medications in Yunnan Province were included. The status of drop-out and demographic data were collected from survey questionnaires and the extracted medical-visiting records from the China National Free Antiretroviral Treatment Program Database of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Chi-square test was used in statistical analysis and logistic regression was applied in analyzing factors related with re-engagement.Results:Among the total 6 075 cases with HIV infection which were recorded with the status of drop-out during ART in Yunnan Province, 5 340(87.9%) cases were confirmed drop-out, 540(8.9%) cases were false dropping-out due to belated medical visiting records, 109(1.8%) cases provided invalid answers or had no response to survey questionnaire, and 86(1.4%) cases failed to report results. Among 5 340 confirmed drop-out cases, the findings showed that 923(17.3%) cases were tracked and successfully re-initiated ART, 2 327(43.6%) cases could not be contacted, 1 443(27.0%) cases refused ART, 100(1.9%) cases died, 39(0.7%) cases came back for treatment by self-willing, 91(1.7%) cases were detained, and 417(7.8%) cases were in other situations. Tracking the dropping-out cases were through the workers based on the health facilities including ART clinics, centers for disease control and prevention and the community-based organizations. They tracked the dropping-out cases by phone, through household visiting or face-to-face communication. Statistically significant differences were found in the proportion of patients re-engagement by gender, re-engagement age, route of infection, education level and time from entry to last loss ( χ2=6.14, 21.26, 8.24, 17.69, 12.75, respectively, all P<0.050). The logistic regression suggested that the protective factors related with the re-engagement included female (adjusted odds ratio (a OR)=1.34, 95% confidence interval ( CI) 1.12 to 1.61, P=0.002), re-engagement age≤30 year-old (a OR=1.78, 95% CI 1.25 to 2.55, P<0.001), age of 31 to 60 year-old (a OR=1.33, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.76, P=0.043), education level with primary school to high school or technical secondary school (a OR=1.56, 95% CI 1.21 to 2.01, P<0.001), the period>24 months between first initiating ART and dropping-out (a OR=1.37, 95% CI 1.11 to 1.70, P=0.004). Conclusions:The program of tracking and re-engagement for ART dropping-out patients in Yunnan Province needs multi-department participation and investing large resources, but the success rate of tracking and re-engagement is not high. The protective factors related with re-engagement are female, re-engagement age≤60 year-old, education level with primary school to high school or technical secondary school, the period>24 months between first initiating ART and dropping-out.