Abstract
The measurement of the CD4+ count is the predictor of evolution to AIDS, in ART. Studying the way of the CD4+ count over time provides an insight to the disease evolution. The main objective of this study was to apply statistical analysis on longitudinally measured CD4+ Cell counts of HIV-positive patients under ART. The study population consists of 647 HIV+ patients who were 16 years old or older and who were under ART follow up from 2012 to 2017 in Debre Berhan Referral Hospital, Debre Berhan, Ethiopia. The data were from the patients' chart. All patients who have initiated to ART and measured their CD4+ cell counts at least two times, including the baseline and those who started the first line ART regimen class was included in the study population. Data were explored using basic descriptive statistics and individual and mean profile plots. The methods of LMM and GLMM were used. The mean profile of CD4+ count revealed that there is an improvement in the duration of treatment in a linear pattern. From the GLMM covariates duration of treatment, sex, BMI, baseline CD4, regimen class, duration by age, duration by baseline CD4 and duration by regimen class significantly determines the change in CD4+ count overtime at 5% level of significance. There is the duration of treatment effect on the current CD4+ count. The study result suggests that HIV+ patients attending in ART improve their CD4+ count.
Highlights
Scientists and humanitarian aid groups are working on pharmaceutical medicine for HIV/AIDS, but still not possible
Since Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART) prolongs the lifetime of HIV/AIDS patients [1]
This study used the data of HIV/AIDS patients who were undergoing Antiretroviral Therapy in the ART clinic of Debre Berhan Referral Hospital (DBRH), Debre Berhan, Ethiopia, during the period July 1, 2012, to July 30, 2015, and were followed up through the ART routine register records up to January 31, 2017; taken from patients chart
Summary
Scientists and humanitarian aid groups are working on pharmaceutical medicine for HIV/AIDS, but still not possible. The possible way, which is better than none- is treating patients through a clinical treatment called Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART). In clinical/medical studies, it is very common to follow a cohort of subjects evolving over a period of time to identify the relationship between one or more independent covariates with the outcome of interest and the risk of developing a disease. After the outcome of interest is identified, it is better to study its' evolution over time and the relationship between independent covariates and how the outcome of interest related to the risk of the disease. There are challenges in identifying the longitudinal features of most infectious diseases, but it is better to identify the biomarker of HIV/AIDS, since there is a measurement of the CD4+ count of a disease level and whether it is high risk of infection or lower risk of infection. Due to the presence of correlated nature of observations in the repeated measurements, linear mixed model take into account these and can identify the variability of subjects within and Biomedical Statistics and Informatics 2018; 3(2): 34-42 between, this study is considered longitudinal analysis
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