Patterns and associations with immunologic response in patients accessing ART in Khayalitsha

Includes bibliographical references ( leaves 69-74).[Introduction] This study formed part of an existing prospective cohort study describing the outcomes of treatment of patients accessing ART in Khayelitsha. Despite the reported favorable outcomes in terms of immunologic responses, the actual variations in patterns of and associations with immunologic response over time among adult patients accessing the community based antiretroviral treatment programme in Khayelitsha are largely unknown. [The aim of the study] The aim of this study focused on describing the patterns of and associations with immunologic response, together with some of their subsequent outcomes among adult patients accessing community based antiretroviral treatment programme in Khayelitsha. [Study design and population] The analysis of this study formed part of an existing prospective cohort study describing the outcomes of antiretroviral treatment of patients in Khayelitsha. The study population included patients accessing ART in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa. A sample size of 400 HIV positive ART naïve patients was sufficiently powered for the analysis. The socio-demographic and clinical information required for the an alysis was already captured, validated and entered in a database. Summary measures, logistic regressions, survival analysis, simple linear regression and population average models were used to make the analysis and report the findings