The impact of HIV diagnosis on length of hospital stay in New York City, NY, USA

Abstract

ABSTRACTWhile hospitalizations among people living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLWH) have been elevated in the past compared to their uninfected counterparts, the introduction of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has resulted in great strides in controlling symptomatic infection. However, research largely overlooks important differences among HIV-infected individuals, primarily PLWH who are symptomatic versus those who are asymptomatic. We conducted a retrospective study assessing the length of hospital stay among 717,237 admissions from three hospitals in the New York City area. Using zero-truncated negative binomial regression we documented trends in length of hospital stay among individuals who are HIV positive (with symptoms versus those without symptoms) compared to HIV-negative patients over nine consecutive years, from 2006 to 2014. Approximately 0.85% of the admissions were infected with asymptomatic HIV (n = 6,131), while 1.43% of admissions were infected with symptomatic HIV (n = 10,271). The length of stay (LOS) among symptomatic HIV-infected admissions was 32.0% (95% CI: 29.7%–34.2%) longer than LOS in the general admissions. The mean LOS dropped about 1.5% (95% CI: 1.5%–1.6%) per year in the study sample. The LOS in inpatients with asymptomatic HIV had the same LOS as the general inpatient population. Our findings highlight the need for comprehensive strategies to reduce length of hospitalization among HIV-infected individuals.