Abstract
Background Lifelong antiretroviral therapy (ART) improves optimal health outcomes for HIV‐positive individuals, but is threatened by fluctuations in sustained care, self efficacy and hence poor adherence. Retention of patients in the HIV care continuum is crucial for epidemic control. This study aimed to aggregate loss to follow-up (LTFU) behaviour in People Living with HIV (PLHIV) into clusters in order to examine and describe PLHIV clusters having similar characteristics and patterns according to their risk profile. Methods This was a retrospective, cross-sectional study that randomly reviewed 11,589 records of LTFU adult patients initiated on first-line ART from 313 USAID/PEPFAR-supported HIV clinics spread across 5 of Nigeria’s 6 geographical regions between July 1, 2008 and June 30, 2020. LTFU, was defined for PLHIV on ART as > 28 days without an encounter since the last scheduled ART refill appointment. Using the Minkowski method and ward.D2 technique for unsupervised machine learning algorithm agglomerative hierarchical clustering in R, we identified 6 clusters associated with patients LTFU behaviour. Results Within the review period, 497,620 patients were ever enrolled on ART. 324,225 (65.2%) remained on treatment, 101,716 (20.4%) had an LTFU event captured, 36,021 (7.2%) were transferred out to other facilities, 25,633 (5.2%) died and 10,025 (2.0%) self-terminated treatment. Approximately 11% (11,589) of LTFU patients were included. Majority (66.7%) of the clusters consist of female LTFUs. LTFU doubled steadily by age among adolescents (15-19 years) and young people (15-29 years), but as age increased above 40-years the rate of LTFU decreased. High rate of LTFU was reflective of shorter-time on ART. Patients classified in clusters with shorter-time on ART [8-months (female) vs. 72.6-months (male)] indicated the highest rates of LTFU [31.0% (female) vs. 14.9% (male)]. LTFU rate varied by region, was highest among clusters confined in the North West (50%) followed by the South South (33%) and lowest in the North East (17%). Viral load test was low, with only half (50.0%) of the clusters having a documented viral load test result. Conclusion LTFU rates in HIV-positive patients receiving ART in our clinical sites have varied by the duration of ART, with rates declining in recent years. Our study demonstrates that aggregating LTFU behaviour among patients on ART offers great benefit for LTFU surveillance in the HIV care continuum. Our findings would inform targeted HIV program interventions for patient-centered care, reduce LTFU and promote optimal retention.
Published Version
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