Background: The software program InfCare HIV is a combined clinical decision support tool and database. This study investigated the usefulness of InfCare HIV for identifying and characterizing suboptimally treated HIV-infected patients at a Danish HIV clinic.
Methods: This cross-sectional cohort study included data on all HIV-infected patients treated at the Department of Infectious Diseases, Aarhus University Hospital, Skejby, Denmark on a specific date. InfCare HIV was used to identify and characterize suboptimally treated patients defined as patients with virological failure (VF) or untreated patients with a CD4 + count below 350 cells/μl. Patient characteristics were analyzed (i.e. age, sex, ethnicity, and nadir and latest CD4 + cell count). Treatment history and reasons for suboptimal treatment were also investigated.
Results: Among all 530 patients, 421 were receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and had undergone at least 48 weeks of treatment on 29 October 2010. Of these, 27 (6.4%) had ongoing VF. Four were untreated despite a CD4 + count below 350 cells/μl. Among patients on HAART, patients with VF were younger and had lower median nadir CD4 + cell counts than patients without VF. Further, 33.3% (6/18) of African Black men but only 4.1% (10/244) of Caucasian men on HAART had VF (p < 0.001). The primary reason for VF was non-adherence. Three untreated patients had refused HAART, and 1 was not treated because of concerns of non-adherence.
Conclusions: InfCare HIV was successfully used to identify patients with suboptimal treatment. A surprisingly high percentage of African Black men had VF.