Reduced access to care is a major contributor to health disparities in black communities. This review discusses factors that serve to diminish access to care among blacks in the context of STD disparities and highlights strategies to improve access to STD care. At the individual level, structural factors such as poverty, lack of insurance, and lack of a regular source of care are known to decrease health service utilization and have been identified as barriers to STD care as well. Other individual level factors that influence access to care, particularly for STDs, include concerns about confidentiality and privacy, perceptions of discrimination, and perceptions of risk. At the health system level, availability of services, organizational inefficiencies, and staff perceptions affect access. Strategies to improve access to STD care include expanding services in high-risk nontraditional venues, developing multilevel partnerships, incorporating STD services into routine healthcare, integrating services with HIV, improving the quality of public STD clinic care, and ultimately addressing the broader underlying factors that contribute to health disparities.
Background Timely initiation of combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) in eligible HIV-infected patients is associated with substantial reductions in mortality and morbidity. Nigeria has the second largest number of persons living with HIV/AIDS in the world. We examined patient characteristics, time to ART initiation, retention and mortality at five rural facilities in Kwara and Niger states of Nigeria. Methods We analyzed program-level cohort data for HIV-infected, ART-naïve clients (≥15 years) enrolled from June 2009-February 2011. We modeled the probability of ART initiation among clients meeting national ART eligibility criteria using logistic regression with splines. Results We enrolled 1,948 ART-naïve adults/adolescents into care, of whom 1174 were ART eligible (62% female). Only 74% of eligible patients (n=869) initiated ART within 90 days post-enrollment. The median CD4+ count for eligible clients was 156 cells/μL [IQR: 81–257], with 67% in WHO stage III/IV disease. Adjusting for CD4+ count, WHO stage, functional status, hemoglobin, body mass index, sex, age, education, marital status, employment, clinic of attendance, and month of enrollment, we found that immunosuppression (CD4 350 vs. 200, odds ratio (OR)=2.10 [95%CI: 1.31, 3.35], functional status (bedridden vs. working, OR=4.17 [95%CI: 1.63–10.67]), clinic of attendance (Kuta hospital vs. referent: OR=5.70 [95%CI:2.99–10.89]), and date of enrollment (December 2010 vs. June 2009: OR=2.13 [95%CI:1.19–3.81]) were associated with delayed ART initiation. Conclusion Delayed initiation of ART was associated with higher CD4+ counts, lower functional status, clinic of attendance, and later dates of enrollment among ART-eligible clients. Our findings provide targets for quality improvement efforts that may help reduce attrition and improve ART uptake in similar settings.
Objective To assess trends in hemoglobin recovery among HIV-infected patients initiated on zidovudine-based combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) stratified by baseline hemoglobin level. Methods Hemoglobin data from non-pregnant adult patients initiating cART in rural north-central Nigeria between June 2009 and May 2011 was analyzed using a linear mixed effects model to assess the interaction between time, zidovudine-containing regimen, and baseline hemoglobin level on the outcome of subsequent hemoglobin level. Best fit curves were created for baseline hemoglobin in the 10th, 25th, 75th and 90th percentiles. Results We included 313 patients with 736 measures of hemoglobin in the analysis (239 on zidovudine and 74 on non-zidovudine-containing regimens). Median hemoglobin increased over time in both groups, with differences in hemoglobin response over time related to baseline hemoglobin levels and zidovudine use (p = 0.003). The groups of patients on zidovudine at the 10th and 90th percentiles had downward sloping curves while all other groups had upward trending hemoglobin levels. Conclusion Though hemoglobin levels increased overall for patients on zidovudine-containing regimens, for those in the 10th and 90th percentiles hemoglobin levels trended downward over time. These results have implications for decisions regarding when to initiate, switch from or avoid the use of zidovudine.
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