Introduction: Hospitalization rates for comorbid conditions among persons living with HIV in the current highly active antiretroviral therapy era are unknown.
Methods: Hospitalization data from 2001 to 2008 were obtained on 11,645 adults receiving longitudinal HIV care at 4 geographically diverse US HIV clinics within the HIV Research Network. Modified clinical classification software from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality assigned primary ICD-9 codes into diagnostic categories. Analysis was performed with repeated measures negative binomial regression.
Results: During 2001 to 2008, the rate of AIDS-defining illness (ADI) hospitalizations declined from 6.7 to 2.7 per 100 person-years, incidence rate ratio per year, 0.89 (0.87, 0.91). Among the other diagnostic categories with average rates >2 per 100 person-years, cardiovascular hospitalizations increased over time [1.07 (1.03, 1.11)], whereas non-AIDS-defining infection [0.98 (0.96, 1.00)], psychiatric [0.96 (0.93, 1.00)], and gastrointestinal/liver [0.96 (0.92, 1.00)] were slightly decreasing or stable. Although less frequent overall, renal and pulmonary admissions also increased over time in univariate and multivariate analyses. Of all diagnostic categories, ADI admissions had the longest mean length of stay, 10.5 days.
Discussion: ADI hospitalizations have continued to decline in recent years but are still relatively frequent and potentially costly given long lengths of stay. Increases or stability in the rates of chronic end-organ disease admissions imply a need for broader medical knowledge among individual clinicians and/or teams who care for persons living with HIV and a need for long-term access to medications for these conditions.