Institute for Healthcare Management and Research, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
MUC Research GmbH, Munich, Germany.
AIDS Care. 2021 Dec;33(12):1642-1646. doi: 10.1080/09540121.2021.1874276. Epub 2021 Jan 23.
Many patients infected with HIV are diagnosed at an advanced stage of illness. These late presenters are individuals with a CD4 cell count of less than 350 cells/µL and/or an AIDS defining disease at initial HIV diagnosis. Purpose of FindHIV is to develop and distribute a questionnaire/scoring system aimed at a reduction in late presentation. FindHIV uses a mixed methods approach. In a first step, primary data of patients were collected. Inclusion criteria were: age ≥ 18 years, cognitive ability and language skills to participate in the study, initial HIV diagnosis within the past 6 months, and patient informed consent. Descriptive methods and regression models are used to identify: (1) patient characteristics associated with late presentation and (2) contacts to the healthcare system with indicator diseases that did not lead to HIV testing. Secondly, a questionnaire/scoring system is created by an expert panel. Afterwards the questionnaire/scoring system is to be disseminated. The greatest challenge was in reaching an adequate sample size. Another risk may be a recall bias. Nevertheless, FindHIV is devised as an in-depth study of the phenomenon of late presentation with potential to significantly improve HIV detection.
许多感染 HIV 的患者在疾病晚期才被诊断出来。这些晚期患者是指在初次 HIV 诊断时 CD4 细胞计数低于 350 个/µL 和/或患有艾滋病定义性疾病的个体。FindHIV 的目的是开发和分发一种旨在减少晚期就诊的问卷/评分系统。FindHIV 使用混合方法。在第一步中，收集了患者的原始数据。纳入标准为：年龄≥18 岁，有认知能力和语言技能参与研究，初次 HIV 诊断在过去 6 个月内，患者知情同意。使用描述性方法和回归模型来确定：(1)与晚期就诊相关的患者特征；(2)与未导致 HIV 检测的指示性疾病相关的医疗保健系统接触情况。其次，由专家小组创建问卷/评分系统。之后，将传播问卷/评分系统。最大的挑战是获得足够的样本量。另一个风险可能是回忆偏差。尽管如此，FindHIV 旨在深入研究晚期就诊现象，有可能显著提高 HIV 检测率。
