Effect of baseline CD4+ T cell count on drop-out of antiretroviral therapy in HIV infected persons in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, 2008-2015 / 中华流行病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the effect of baseline CD4+T cell count (CD4) on drop-out of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in HIV infected persons.Methods Retrospective cohort was conducted in this study.HIV infected persons aged≥ 18 years and receiving free ART for the first time in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (Guangxi) from 2008 to 2015 were selected from the antiretroviral treatment database of National Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Information System,with follow-up conducted till May 30,2016.Cause-specific Cox proportional hazard models were used to evaluate effect of different CD4 on the drop-out of ART in the HIV infected persons.Results A total of 58 502 eligible study participants were included in this retrospective cohort study.The average drop-out ratio was 4.8/100 person-years.After controlling the following baseline covariatesage,sex,marital status,route of HIV infection,WHO clinical stage before ART,initial/current ART regiment,ART regiment adjustment,and year of initiating ART for potential confounding,the adjusted HR of drop-out for HIV infected persons with 200-cells/μl,351-cells/μl and ≥500 cells/μl were 1.110 (95％CI1.053-1.171,P＜0.001),1.391 (95％CI1.278-1.514,P＜0.001) and 1.695 (95％CI1.497-1.918,P＜ 0.001),respectively,in risk for drop-out compared with those with baseline CD4 ＜200 cells/μ 1.Among the HIV infected persons,56.0％ (1 601/2 861) of drug withdrawal was due to poor compliance with medication.Conclusions With the increase of baseline CD4 when initiating ART,the risk for the drop-out in HIV infected persons increased significantly.To further reduce the drop-out of ART,it is important to take CD4 into account in initiating ART and to strengthen the health education on treatment compliancy and training for healthcare providers.