TY - JOUR
T1 - National characteristics and trends in antiretroviral treatment in Australia can be accurately estimated using a large clinical cohort
AU - Huang, Robin
AU - Petoumenos, Kathy
AU - Gray, Richard T.
AU - McManus, Hamish
AU - Dharan, Nila
AU - Guy, Rebecca
AU - Cooper, David A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2018/8
Y1 - 2018/8
N2 - Objectives: Cohort studies are often used as a national surveillance tool to monitor trends in HIV treatment and morbidity outcomes. However, there are limited studies validating the accuracy of using cohorts as a representation of the overall HIV-positive population. We compared data from a large Australian HIV-positive cohort study (Australian HIV Observational Database [AHOD]) and a 10% longitudinal sample from Australia's subsidized prescription medication scheme (Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme [PBS]) to assess the use of cohorts for providing representative data for surveillance and monitoring purposes. Study Design and Setting: Basic demographics and treatment information from July 1, 2013, to March 31, 2016, were divided into half-yearly periods to compare HIV trends between AHOD (n = 2,488) and PBS (n = 18,409) patients. Results: In both data sets, most patients were men, aged above 50 years, and primarily resided in New South Wales. Both data sets revealed a significant shift toward the increased use of integrase strand transfer inhibitors and a gradual decline in the use of protease inhibitors and nonnucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors among the treated population in Australia. Similarly, a substantial increase in the use of once daily, single-tablet, fixed-dose combination regimens was also observed. Conclusion: Our results show that observational cohort studies can serve as useful surrogate surveillance tools for monitoring patient characteristics and HIV treatment trends.
AB - Objectives: Cohort studies are often used as a national surveillance tool to monitor trends in HIV treatment and morbidity outcomes. However, there are limited studies validating the accuracy of using cohorts as a representation of the overall HIV-positive population. We compared data from a large Australian HIV-positive cohort study (Australian HIV Observational Database [AHOD]) and a 10% longitudinal sample from Australia's subsidized prescription medication scheme (Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme [PBS]) to assess the use of cohorts for providing representative data for surveillance and monitoring purposes. Study Design and Setting: Basic demographics and treatment information from July 1, 2013, to March 31, 2016, were divided into half-yearly periods to compare HIV trends between AHOD (n = 2,488) and PBS (n = 18,409) patients. Results: In both data sets, most patients were men, aged above 50 years, and primarily resided in New South Wales. Both data sets revealed a significant shift toward the increased use of integrase strand transfer inhibitors and a gradual decline in the use of protease inhibitors and nonnucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors among the treated population in Australia. Similarly, a substantial increase in the use of once daily, single-tablet, fixed-dose combination regimens was also observed. Conclusion: Our results show that observational cohort studies can serve as useful surrogate surveillance tools for monitoring patient characteristics and HIV treatment trends.
KW - Antiretroviral treatment
KW - Cohort
KW - HIV infection
KW - Observational data
KW - Surveillance
KW - Treatment monitoring
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85047270019&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2018.04.015
DO - 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2018.04.015
M3 - Article
C2 - 29704556
AN - SCOPUS:85047270019
SN - 0895-4356
VL - 100
SP - 82
EP - 91
JO - Journal of Clinical Epidemiology
JF - Journal of Clinical Epidemiology
ER -