12
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
1 collections
    0
    shares

      Patient Preference and Adherence (submit here)

      This international, peer-reviewed Open Access journal by Dove Medical Press focuses on the growing importance of patient preference and adherence throughout the therapeutic process. Sign up for email alerts here.

      34,896 Monthly downloads/views I 2.314 Impact Factor I 3.8 CiteScore I 1.14 Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) I 0.629 Scimago Journal & Country Rank (SJR)

      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Behavioral and clinical characteristics of people receiving medical care for HIV infection in an outpatient facility in Sicily, Italy

      research-article

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPMC
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Aim

          The authors examined a cohort of HIV-positive outpatients at the AIDS Center of Palermo University in Italy in order to identify factors related to the frequency of their visits to the outpatient facility for health care services.

          Methods

          Two hundred and twenty-four HIV-infected subjects were enrolled in the study. Demographic and HIV disease characteristics were recorded and assessed with the number of days accessed to our outpatients unit in univariate and multivariate analyses. The potential relationship with immunological status was also analyzed stratifying the patients into groups according to their CD4 + T-cell counts (≥500 vs <500/mm 3, and ≥200 vs <200/mm 3).

          Results

          Both univariate and multivariate analyses showed that duration of antiretroviral therapy <5 years and hypertension were significantly associated with a CD4 + T-cell count of <500/mm 3, whereas geographic origin (Africa) was associated with a CD4 + T-cell count of <200/mm 3. Mean number of days the patients sought access to day-care services for laboratory tests was negatively associated with CD4 + T-cell count.

          Conclusion

          Patients with low CD4 + T-cell counts showed higher use of health care services, demonstrating how early HIV diagnosis can help to reduce health care costs. The CD4 + T-cell cut-off of 200 cells emphasizes the importance of identifying and managing HIV infection among hard-to-reach groups like vulnerable migrants. In our sample, the illegal status of immigrants does not influence the management of their HIV/AIDS condition, but the lack of European health card that documents the current antiretroviral status, could interfere with the efforts to eradicate AIDS. A better understanding of the major determinants of HIV treatment costs has led to appropriate large-scale actions, which in turn has increased resources and expanded intervention programs. Further guidance should be offered to hard-to-reach groups in order to improve early AIDS diagnosis, and procedures for identifying and managing these vulnerable subjects should be made available to care commissioners and service providers.

          Most cited references30

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: not found
          • Article: not found

          Guidelines for the Use of Antiretroviral Agents in HIV-1-Infected Adults and Adolescents

          (2007)
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: not found
            • Book: not found

            Consolidated Guidelines on the Use of Antiretroviral Drugs for Treating and Preventing HIV Infection: Recommendations for a Public Health Approach

              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: not found
              • Conference Proceedings: not found

              Global report: UNAIDS report on the global AIDS epidemic 2013

                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Journal
                Patient Prefer Adherence
                Patient Prefer Adherence
                Patient Preference and Adherence
                Patient preference and adherence
                Dove Medical Press
                1177-889X
                2016
                25 May 2016
                : 10
                : 919-927
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Sciences for Health Promotion and Mother-Child Care “G D’Alessandro”, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy
                [2 ]Department of Medicinal Clinics and Emerging Diseases, “Paolo Giaccone” Polyclinic University Hospital, Palermo, Italy
                Author notes
                Correspondence: Alessandra Casuccio, Department of Sciences for Health Promotion and Mother-Child Care “G D’Alessandro”, University of Palermo, Via del Vespro 127, 90127 Palermo, Italy, Tel +39 91 655 3929, Fax +39 91 655 3905, Email alessandra.casuccio@ 123456unipa.it
                Article
                ppa-10-919
                10.2147/PPA.S90456
                4889094
                27307712
                76ff5a00-d63e-4467-b0bf-926ca7866d9c
                © 2016 Di Carlo et al. This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited

                The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/). By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed.

                History
                Categories
                Original Research

                Medicine
                hiv infection,cd4+ t-cell count,access to care,hiv outpatient service,hard-to-reach groups,resource use

                Comments

                Comment on this article