Survival of people living with HIV/AIDS and related factors in Lu'an, Anhui

Objective To understand the survival of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and related factors in Lu'an, Anhui province. Methods A cohort study was conducted among the PLWHA currently living in Lu'an and reported from 1 January 1999 to 31 December 2013. The information about their survivals, treatments, deaths and others were collected. Life table was used to calculate the survival rate and Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate the survival time and Cox proportional hazard regression model was used to identify the factors associated with survival. Results All the PLWHA were followed up for a total of 1502.00 person years, AIDS related mortality rate was 8.06/100 person years. The average survival time was 9.76 years (95% CI=8.98~10.53), the median survival time was 12.00 years. Accumulative survival rates in 3rd year, 5th year, 10th year were 80%, 75% and 66% respectively. Transmission route, occupation, education level, clinical stage and complication of tuberculosis are the factors associated with the survival time. The PLWHA with older age at diagnosis and with lower CD4 count had higher risk of death. And the risk of death in PLWHA receiving no HAART was higher than those receiving HAART (RR=21.939, 95% CI: 13.002-37.019). The lower the CD4 count was when HAART began, the higher the risk of death was. The longer the treatment was, the lower the risk of death was (RR=27.551, 95%CI：5.479-138.546). Conclusion Expanding HIV detection, early finding of PLWHA, providing standard HAART and preventing opportunistic infections are effective measures to improve the survival of PLWHA.