Relationship between HIV serostatus, CD4 count and rehospitalisation: Potential implications for health systems strengthening in South Africa

Southern African Journal of Infectious Diseases

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Relationship between HIV serostatus, CD4 count and rehospitalisation: Potential implications for health systems strengthening in South Africa
 
Creator Moodley, Yoshan Tomita, Andrew
 
Subject — CD4 count; HIV; patient re-admission; rehospitalisation; serostatus
Description Background: Despite three decades of scientific response to HIV/AIDS, the generalised HIV epidemic continues to persist in South Africa. There is growing acknowledgement that health system strengthening will be critical in tackling HIV/AIDS. Patient rehospitalisation is an important quality benchmark of health service delivery, but there is currently limited data on rehospitalisation of patients with HIV/AIDS in South Africa, a setting with a high burden of HIV disease.Objectives: To determine the relationship between combined HIV serostatus and CD4 count, and rehospitalisation in South Africa.Methods: This study was a retrospective analysis of data from 11,362 non-surgical adult patients who attended the Hlabisa Hospital in South Africa. Data related to patient age, gender, HIV serostatus, CD4 count (for HIV-positive patients) and comorbidity were analysed through univariate (Fisher’s Exact or χ2 tests) and multivariate (Cox regression) statistical methods to determine associations with rehospitalisation within 1 month (acute rehospitalisation) or 12 months (long term rehospitalisation).Results: An HIV-positive serostatus with CD4 count 350 cells/mm3 or an HIV-positive serostatus with an unknown CD4 count were independently associated with a higher risk of acute (p = 0.010 and p = 0.003) and long term rehospitalisation (p 0.001 for both categories) when compared with an HIV-negative serostatus group.Conclusions: HIV-positive individuals with immune deficiency, or lacking a CD4 count measurement are at risk of rehospitalisation. Strengthening primary healthcare service delivery of these key affected inpatient populations should be a priority. 
 
Publisher AOSIS Publishing
 
Contributor
Date 2017-03-31
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajid.v32i1.66
 
Source Southern African Journal of Infectious Diseases; Vol 32, No 1 (2017); 23-28 2313-1810 2312-0053
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajid.co.za/index.php/sajid/article/view/66/58
 
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Rights Copyright (c) 2019 Yoshan Moodley, Andrew Tomita https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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