INTRODUCTION: Monitoring the length of survival after diagnosis is, therefore, an important component of the surveillance of AIDS. It provides a basis for evaluating individual prognostic factors. The survival of patients with AIDS may depend on a variety of factors that are socio-demographic and clinical factors. The study is designed to identify factors that affect the survival status of HIV infected patients under ART in Wolisso, Ethiopia.
METHODS: This is a retrospective study based on cases of HIV infected patients of age 15 years and above who have started ART from September 2010 to August 2013 and followed until February 30th, 2014. To analyze the data descriptive statistics, univariate and multivariate analyses were used. The descriptive analysis indicates that out of the total of 658 HIV-infected patients, 533(81%) are censored and 125(19%) are uncensored in the study. And, from 125 uncensored patients, 60(9.1%) patients have died and 65(9.9%) are dropped out cases. The overall mean estimated survival time of patients under the study was 33.76(95% CI: 32.6-34.9) months.
RESULTS: The Kaplan Meier method was used to estimate the survival time and Cox’s regression model was employed to identify the covariates that have a statistically significant effect on the survival of HIV-infected patients. Based on the log-rank test, there was a significant difference in survival experience between the various categories of gender, marital status, work type, duration of pre-ART, regimen type, functional status, TB type, WHO clinical stage, condom use, and substance abuse (like smoking or alcoholic). And, the multivariate analysis of the Cox regression model gives that CD4 count, functional status, TB type, WHO clinical stage, condom use, and substance abuse are significant risk factors for survival of HIV-infected patients.
CONCLUSION: The patients with low CD4 count, WHO stage III or IV, being ambulatory or bedridden, extra-pulmonary, not used condom, and substance abuse were associated with a high risk of death or dropped out the ART of the patients. Therefore, it is recommended that these at-risk patients need careful monitoring to improve their survival times by the concerned bodies.