The Incidence, Prevalence and Mortality Rates of Black and White Persons with HIV in the United States in 2019.

Abstract

This study examines the experience of non-Hispanic Black Americans (hereinafter referred to as Black persons) and non-Hispanic White Americans (hereinafter referred to as White persons) with regard to the incidence (i.e., number of persons diagnosed with HIV), prevalence (i.e., number of persons living with HIV), and mortality rates of persons with HIV in the United States in 2019. With regard to mortality rates, this study examines the mortality rate of all Black persons and White persons with HIV in 2019 as well as the mortality rate of hospitalized Black persons and White persons with HIV in 2019. Data on the racial characteristics of all persons in the United States in 2019 were obtained from the United States Census Bureau, and data on the racial characteristics of all persons with HIV in the United States were obtained from HIV Surveillance Reports produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In addition, data on all hospital patients in seven states (California, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina and Wisconsin) in 2019 were obtained from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Hospital Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) State Inpatient Database (SID). These seven states included 44 percent of all persons living with HIV in the United States in 2019. This study found that Black persons were more likely to be diagnosed with HIV, live with HIV, and die with HIV than White persons in the United States. This is illustrated by the fact that in 2019 Black persons comprised 13.4 percent of the population, yet they comprised 42.1 percent of persons diagnosed with HIV, 40.4 percent of persons living with HIV, and 42.9 percent of persons who died with HIV. By comparison, in 2019 White persons comprised 76.3 percent of the population, yet they comprised 24.8 percent of persons diagnosed with HIV, 29.1 percent of persons living with HIV, and 31.8 percent of persons who died with HIV. Nevertheless, this study did not find a statistically significant difference between the in-hospital mortality rates of Black and White persons in seven states in 2019. The burden of HIV was considerably greater on Black persons than White persons in the United States in 2019.