Human immunodeficiency virus infection in pregnant women and its correlation with socioeconomic determinants

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the spatial pattern of human immunodeficiency virus infection in pregnant women and its correlation with socioeconomic determinants. Method: Ecological study, carried out with cases of human immunodeficiency virus infection in pregnant women in the state of Pará, Brazil, from 2010 to 2017. Rate analysis was performed using the empirical Bayesian method and univariate local Moran. Bivariate analyses were used to examine the correlation between infection and socioeconomic determinants. Results: High rates of infection were observed in municipalities in the mesoregions of Southeast of Pará and Metropolitan area of Belém. A significant spatial correlation was found between human immunodeficiency virus infection rates in pregnant women and human development index indicators (I = 0.2836; p < 0.05), average income (I = 0.6303; p < 0.05), and illiteracy rate (I = 0.4604; p < 0.05). Conclusion: The spatial pattern of human immunodeficiency virus infection in pregnant women correlated to socioeconomic determinants highlights the need to restructure public policies for the control and prevention of AIDS virus that take into account the socioeconomic factors of this specific population and locoregional disparities in Pará.