Objective: To assess how often patients with HIV infection abandon treatment.
Design: Longitudinal, prospective and observational study. SITE. Out-patient Hospital Clinic.
Patients and others participants: The total number of patients with HIV infection treated between September 1989 and December 1990.
Interventions: Assessment of the level of out-patient follow-up.
Measurements and main results: The rate of abandonment of out-patient follow-up was determined, with "abandonment" defined as unexplained non-attendance for at least two consecutive appointments. Its possible correlations with sex, age and HIV risk behaviour was calculated. 182 patients (143 men and 39 women) with an average age of 30.1 (ds 8.62) were surveyed. The abandonment rate for the sample as a whole was 44%, with no difference as to sex. However the abandonment rate was higher in the group of patients addicted to drugs (DDA) (69%) than in non-DDA (25%) or in ex-DDA patients (6.5%). These figures reached high statistical significance (p less than 0.01 and 0.001 respectively.
Conclusions: The abandonment rate of out-patient hospital follow-up by HIV-infected patients appears extremely high, especially among drug addicts (DDA).