Prevalence of HIV infection among inpatients and outpatients in Department of Veterans Affairs health care systems: implications for screening programs for HIV.

Owens DK, Sundaram V, Lazzeroni LC, Douglass LR, Sanders GD, Taylor K, VanGroningen R, Shadle VM, McWhorter VC, Agoncillo T, Haren N, Nyland J, Tempio P, Khayr W, Dietzen DJ, Jensen P, Simberkoff MS, Bozzette SA, Holodniy M. Prevalence of HIV infection among inpatients and outpatients in Department of Veterans Affairs health care systems: implications for screening programs for HIV. American journal of public health. 2007 Dec 1; 97(12):2173-8.

Related HSR&D Project(s)

• HII 99-047 – Identification of HIV Infection Among Veterans

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.    Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions

Search for Abstract from PubMed

---

Abstract:

OBJECTIVES: We sought to determine the prevalence of HIV in both inpatient and outpatient settings in 6 Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care sites. METHODS: We collected demographic data and data on comorbid conditions and then conducted blinded, anonymous HIV testing. We conducted a multivariate analysis to determine predictors of HIV infection. RESULTS: We tested 4500 outpatient blood specimens and 4205 inpatient blood specimens; 326 (3.7%) patients tested positive for HIV. Inpatient HIV prevalence ranged from 1.2% to 6.9%; outpatient HIV prevalence ranged from 0.9% to 8.9%. Having a history of hepatitis B or C infection, a sexually transmitted disease, or pneumonia also predicted HIV infection. The prevalence of previously undocumented HIV infection varied from 0.1% to 2.8% among outpatients and from 0.0% to 1.7% among inpatients. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of undocumented HIV infection was sufficiently high for routine voluntary screening to be cost effective in each of the 6 sites we evaluated. Many VA health care systems should consider expanded routine voluntary HIV screening.