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Exploring Estimates and Reasons for Lost to Follow Up among People Living with HIV on Antiretroviral Therapy in Kisumu County, Kenya
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6 01 2022
Source: J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 90(2):146-153 -
Alternative Title:J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr
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Description:Background:
A better understanding why people living with HIV (PLHIV) become lost to follow up (LTFU) and determining who is LTFU in a program setting is needed to attain HIV epidemic control.
Setting:
This retrospective cross-sectional study used an evidence-sampling approach to select health facilities and LTFU patients from a large HIV program supporting 61 health facilities in Kisumu County, Kenya.
Methods:
Eligible PLHIV included adults ≥18 years with at least one clinic visit between 1st September 2016 and 31st August 2018 and were LTFU (no clinical contact for ≥90 days after their last expected clinic visit). From March to June 2019, demographic and clinical variables were collected from a sample of LTFU patient files at 12 health facilities. Patient care status and retention outcomes were determined through program tracing.
Results:
Of 787 LTFU patients selected and traced, 36% were male, median age was 30.5 years (IQR: 24.6–38.0), and 78% had their vital status confirmed with 560 (92%) alive and 52 (8%) deceased. Among 499 (89.0%) with a retention outcome, 233 (46.7%) had stopped care while 266 (53.3%) had self-transferred to another facility. Among those who had stopped care, psychosocial reasons were most common (65.2% [95% CI, 58.9%–71.1%]) followed by structural reasons (29.6% [95% CI, 24.1%–35.8%]) and clinic-based reasons (3.0% [95% CI, 1.4%–6.2).
Conclusion:
We found that over half of patients LTFU were receiving HIV care elsewhere, leading to a higher overall patient retention rate than routinely reported. Similar strategies could be considered to improve the accuracy of reporting retention in HIV care.
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Pubmed ID:35213856
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Pubmed Central ID:PMC9203903
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