AEGiS-AIDSWeekly: AIDS Therapies: Women in Florida Less Likely to Receive Antiretroviral Therapies than Men

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in December 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

AIDS Therapies: Women in Florida Less Likely to Receive Antiretroviral Therapies than Men

AIDSWEEKLY Plus; Monday, December 25, 2000 & January 1, 2001
Prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports

NewsRx -- A demographic study conducted by Georgetown University public policy researchers has revealed that women infected with HIV are less likely to receive antiretroviral therapies than men and as a result, their mortality rate due to HIV infection is higher.

The population-based analysis, using Medicaid data from the state of Florida, also revealed that type of therapy varied among races and ethnicities, as well as gender.

K.H. Anderson and J.M. Mitchell published their findings of antiretroviral therapy application by sex and race/ethnicity in the Archives of Internal Medicine ("Differential access in the receipt of antiretroviral drugs for the treatment of AIDS and its implications for survival," Arch Intern Med 2000 Nov 13;160(20):3114-20).

They determined patients' prescription of two nucleoside analogs (TWONUKES) and of one protease inhibitor plus a nucleoside combination (PI+NUKES) from Medicaid claims data, and they determined mortality probability from eligibility and enrollment data, the researchers explained.

Anderson and Mitchell reported the following:

Women are significantly less likely to receive either TWONUKES (probability = 0.16) or PI+NUKES (probability = 0.09) (P<.01 for both).
Blacks are more likely to receive TWONUKES than whites (probability = 0.04), and significantly less likely to receive PI+NUKES (P<.01).
Hispanics, on the other hand, have a 0.03 lower probability of receiving PI+NUKES relative to whites (P<.01).
People living with HIV/AIDS and taking PI+NUKES "are 60% as likely to die each month (P<.01)," whereas receiving TWONUKES "lowers the relative hazard of death by close to 66% each month (P<.01)."

Additionally, the researchers determined that after controlling for being on drug therapy and for "diagnosed health throughout the period," women are over half (56%) as likely to die as men (P<.01), and blacks are 20% more likely and Hispanics 14% less likely to die than white HIV/AIDS patients.

Anderson and Mitchell concluded: "States need to investigate why women are less likely to receive antiretroviral drug therapies than men and to consider policies that might foster better access to antiretroviral therapies for women with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome because these efforts might yield even further reductions in mortality in women. Given the large reductions in mortality that accompany receipt of antiretroviral therapies, states need to foster policies that promote widespread use of new drug treatment protocols."

The corresponding author for this study is J.M. Mitchell, Georgetown University, Georgetown Public Policy Institute, 3600 N St. NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20007, USA.

This article was prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports.

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