Important note: Information in this article was accurate in July 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.AIDSWEEKLY Plus; July 8, 2002
Michael Greer, Senior Medical Writer
"Although there is concern that minority groups and women are underrepresented in research involving patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, the available data are inconclusive," according to Dr. Allen L. Gifford and colleagues at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine in La Jolla, the University of California at Los Angeles in Los Angeles, and RAND Health, a healthcare research organization based in Santa Monica.
After examining data from HIV drug trials, Gifford and coauthors found that non-Caucasian and HMO-insured patients were far less likely to have access to experimental medications.
The researchers reviewed demographic data from the HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study (www.rand.org/health/hcsus). More than 2800 patients, designed to be nationally representative of the more than 231,000 HIV patients receiving care in the continental United States, were interviewed for that study, according to the report.
African-American and Hispanic HIV patients were roughly half as likely as their Caucasian counterparts to have participated in research trials or to have received experimental treatments, study data showed. Similar results were seen for patients insured through private health maintenance organizations, who were less than half as likely to have access to trials or experimental drugs as those with fee-for-service insurance.
Women, however, had the same opportunities as male patients to participate in HIV research (Participation in research and access to experimental treatments by HIV-infected patients, N Engl J Med 2002 May 2;346(18):1373-82.
"Among patients with HIV infection, participation in research trials and access to experimental treatment is influenced by race or ethnic group and type of health insurance," Gifford and colleagues concluded.
The corresponding author for this report is Allen L. Gifford, University of California at San Diego, 3350 La Jolla Village Dr. (111N-1), San Diego, CA 92161, USA. E-mail: agifford@ucsd.edu.
Key points reported in this study include:
This article was prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports.
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