Temporary employment, absence of stable partnership, and risk of hospitalization or death during the course of HIV infection.

OBJECTIVE

To estimate the independent association between socioeconomic conditions and the risk of all-cause hospitalization or death during the course of HIV disease in the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) era.

METHODS

Patients in the French PRIMO multicenter prospective cohort of 319 individuals were enrolled during primary HIV-1 infection between 1996 and 2002. Associations between social characteristics (ie, employment status, stable partnership) and the risk of hospitalization or death were assessed using generalized estimating equations.

RESULTS

During a median follow-up of 2.5 years, 109 hospitalizations among 84 patients (26.3%) and 3 deaths occurred. Even after adjustment for classic determinants of HIV-infected patients' health status, social characteristics were independently associated with the risk of hospitalization or death, with a significantly increased risk for patients with temporary employment compared with those with stable employment (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 2.5, 95% confidence interval: 1.1 to 5.6) and for patients without a stable partnership compared with those with a stable partnership (OR = 1.6, 95% confidence interval: 1.0 to 2.7).

CONCLUSIONS

In the era of HAART, adverse social conditions constitute independent risk factors of hospitalization or death during the course of HIV disease.