Predictors of Poor Retention in Care of HIV-infected Patients Receiving Antiretroviral Therapy in Korea: Five-Year Hospital-based Retrospective Cohort Study

Poor retention in care (RIC) is associated with higher antiretroviral therapy (ART) failure and worse survival. Identifying high risk patients for poor RIC is important for targeted intervention. A retrospective cohort study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in Korea. HIV-infected patients initiating ART during 2002-2008 were included. 5 year-RIC was measured by hospital visit constancy (HVC) at 5 years after initiating ART. Among 247 enrolled patients, 179 (72.5%) remained in care, 20 (8.1%) were transferred to other hospitals, 9 (3.6%) died and 39 (15.8%) were lost to follow-up. We compared the demographic, psychosocial, and clinical characteristics between the groups with 100% HVC (n = 166, 67.2%) and ≤ 50% HVC (n = 33, 13.4%). In multivariable analysis, ART-starting age ≤ 30 years (odds ratio [OR] 4.08 vs. > 50; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.10-15.15, P = 0.036), no non-HIV related comorbidity (OR 2.94 vs. comorbidity ≥ 1; 95% CI 1.02-8.49, P = 0.046), baseline CD4 cell count > 300 cells/μL (OR 3.58 vs. ≤ 200; 95% CI 1.33-9.65, P = 0.012) were significant predictable factors of poor RIC. HIV/AIDS care-givers should pay attention to young patients with higher baseline CD4 cell counts and no non-HIV related comorbidity.