Healthcare Utilisation in PLWH

Background

We have a substantial dataset on the healthcare resources used by POPPY participants which is currently being analysed. This unique dataset will allow us to investigate the types of healthcare resources that are used by individuals with various clinical conditions and to assess whether HIV infection has an impact on healthcare resource use.

Study aims

We will describe the frequency with which study participants access healthcare from general practitioners (GPs), nurses, healthcare specialists, psychiatrists/psychologists, and other healthcare providers, and will also assess how frequently participants attend A&E, make use of the ambulance service, and undergo hospital procedures and/or investigations.  We will compare the use of healthcare resources across the three POPPY groups, and will also investigate whether there are associations between the level of resource use and the socio-demographic/clinical characteristics of POPPY participants.

Work to date

After examining the healthcare utilization data, we have categorised the types of healthcare that is obtained and, where appropriate, the reasons why the healthcare was required.  This has allowed us to convert the very large amount of text information into a coded dataset that can be analysed.

Next steps

We now plan to report the prevalence of healthcare utilization within each of the categories described above, and to investigate associations with other factors, such as frailty, hepatitis virus coinfection, polypharmacy, morbidity and other adverse health outcomes (e.g. AIDS defining illnesses, non-AIDS defining infections, CVD, gastrointestinal conditions, renal conditions, etc).

Study group

Manolis Bagkeris (UCL), Caroline Sabin (UCL), Alan Winston (Imperial).  Contact: Manolis Bagkeris (e.bagkeris@ucl.ac.uk)