© 2007 American Public Health Association DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2007.110700
Douglas K. Owens, Vandana Sundaram, Lena R. Douglass, Kathie Taylor, Ronald VanGroningen, Patricia Tempio, and Mark Holodniy are with the VA Palo Alto Health-care System, Palo Alto, Calif. Laura C. Lazzeroni is with the Department of Health Research and Policy, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif. Gillian D. Sanders is with the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford. Vera M. Shadle and Peter Jensen are with the VA San Francisco Healthcare System, San Francisco, Calif. Valerie C. McWhorter, Teodora Agoncillo, and Samuel A. Bozzette, are with the VA San Diego Health-care System, San Diego, Calif. Noreen Haren and Michael S. Simberkoff are with the VA New York Harbor Healthcare System, New York, NY. Jill Nyland and Walid Khayr are with the VA North Chicago Healthcare System, Chicago, Ill. Dennis J. Dietzen is with the VA Memphis Healthcare System, Memphis, Tenn. Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Douglas K. Owens, MD, MS, Center for Health Policy/Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research, Stanford University, 117 Encina Commons, Stanford, CA 94305-6019 (e-mail: owens{at}stanford.edu).
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.
Early identification of HIV infection through screening substantially lengthens the life of the person identified and provides an important public health benefit from reduced HIV transmission.1 HIV screening in health care settings is also cost effective, even when the prevalence of HIV infection is as low as 0.05% to 0.1%.1–3 Newly revised guidelines for HIV screening from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend one-time screening in all health care settings unless the prevalence of undiagnosed HIV infection is documented to be less than 0.1%.4 The prevalence of undiagnosed HIV infection has been documented in few health care settings in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy. The Sentinel Hospital Study, which assessed HIV prevalence in a probability sample of nonfederal US hospitals, showed that the prevalence of HIV infection ranged from 0.1% to 7.8% among sentinel hospital populations (inpatients and outpatients combined) in 1989; however, currently, few people with HIV are hospitalized, so both inpatient and outpatient prevalence rates may differ from previous estimates. Although total HIV prevalence has been evaluated in many settings, the most important factor in determining the usefulness of an HIV screening program is the prevalence of unidentified, rather than known, HIV infection. The preferred method for determining an unbiased estimate of prevalence in a population is a blinded (anonymous) serological survey, an approach recommended by the CDC.6,7 In a blinded serological survey, blood that is drawn for other purposes is stripped of identifiers and tested for HIV. Because the patients identity cannot be determined, informed consent is not required. Other approaches that depend on patients acceptance of screening are limited by selection bias that occurs when patients decline testing.8–10 This selection bias can be substantial, and the prevalence of HIV among patients who have declined testing may be either higher or lower than the prevalence among patients who accept testing.11 Blinded serological surveys have been used widely, most notably in the Sentinel Hospital Study.5 We conducted a blinded serological survey to determine the prevalence of HIV infection among outpatients and inpatients in 6 Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care systems. The VA is one of the largest integrated health care systems and the largest provider of HIV care in the United States. Our goal was to assess the prevalence of both documented and undocumented HIV infection and to assess demographic and clinical predictors of documented and undocumented infection. Although predictors of undocumented HIV infection have been evaluated in emergency departments,12,13 they have not been well studied in VA populations.
Site Selection We conducted our study as part of the HIV Quality Enhancement Research Initiative within the VA. The VA has more than 157 hospitals and 887 outpatient clinic facilities nationwide; documented HIV prevalence at these facilities varies widely, from a low of 0.01% to a high of 1.85%.14 We selected 6 VA facilities in which to conduct the survey. The 6 sites, selected to represent the range of documented HIV prevalence within the VA, were located in urban areas and served from 17163 to 58 723 patients per year. The race/ethnicity distribution of these patients varied across sites (African Americans, 12%–42%; Whites, 9%–60%). Each of the sites was affiliated with an academic institution and had an active HIV clinical program ranging in size from 80 to more than 1000 patients with HIV. We selected sites in part on the basis of whether they had the research infrastructure necessary to perform the study. Blood specimens and data were collected from the sites from December 2000 to October 2002. Specimens were collected over a period of at least 6 weeks at each site.
Sampling Strategy We used a sampling scheme such that the specimens collected represented the age distribution of the patient population at each site. Each site provided data on the age distribution of all patients for the period from October 1, 1998, to September 30, 1999. Because the age distribution of the patient population is higher among the VA population than it is among the general population, we collected specimens from patients 25 years and older. Age groups were divided into 5 categories (25–44, 45–54, 55–64, 65–74, and 75 years or older). We collected at least 10% more than the required number of specimens for each age group according to the CDC recommendations to oversample each age group.7
Blood Specimen Selection and Data Collection We derived demographic and clinical information from electronic medical records. We did not collect data on gender, because there were too few women to ensure anonymity, even with all identifiers removed. On the basis of other studies of the VA population, we estimated that men made up more than 95% of our sample. Furthermore, at these sites, only 1% to 2% of patients with known HIV infection were women. We collected data on ethnicity, comorbid conditions, and whether the patient had been tested previously for HIV within the VA system. Comorbid conditions assessed included Alzheimers disease; cerebrovascular disease; chronic liver disease or cirrhosis; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; diabetes; diseases of the heart; hepatitis B, C, or D; malignant neoplasms; nephritis; pneumonia or influenza; psychiatric conditions; septicemia; and sexually transmitted diseases. We based whether or not patients had previous knowledge regarding their HIV status on documentation in their medical record of previous HIV testing at a VA medical center. We were not able to determine whether patients had been tested for HIV outside of the VA system. Documentation of previous HIV testing could include either an International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision,15 code for AIDS diagnosis (0.42) or an HIV antibody test result. We did not use surrogate measures, such as CD4 counts, to identify patients who had HIV, because of the potential for misidentification of the infection. On completion of specimen and data collection, all identifying information that had been used in selecting specimens and collecting data was destroyed so that there were no data linking individual patients to the specimens selected.
Blood Specimen Testing HIV-1 enzyme immunoassay (Organon Teknika, Bio Merieux Corp, Oklahoma City, Okla) and Western blot (Calypte Biomedical Corp, Alameda, Calif) tests were performed according to the manufacturers instructions. Samples shown to be negative according to enzyme immunoassay tests did not undergo further testing and were defined as negative. We defined samples as positive if they were positive according to both enzyme immunoassay and Western blot testing. Samples positive according to enzyme immunoassay testing and indeterminate according to Western blot testing were defined as indeterminate.
Data Analysis
We collected a total of 11125 unique blood specimens: 6024 outpatient specimens and 5111 inpatient specimens. We tested 8705 specimens: 4500 unique outpatient specimens and 4205 unique inpatient specimens. Between 52% and 71% of tested patients were between the age of 25 and 64 years, depending on the site in question (Table 1
Documented HIV Infection Of the 8705 blood specimens tested, 326 (3.7%) were HIV positive. Outpatient HIV prevalence rates ranged from 0.9% to 8.9%, and inpatient rates ranged from 0.8% to 6.9% (Table 2
Undocumented HIV Infection Of the 326 blood specimens shown to be HIV positive in anonymous testing, 273 were collected from patients with a previous positive HIV test result, 5 were collected from patients with a previous negative test result, and 48 were collected from patients with no previous VA-documented HIV test result. Therefore, 53 (48 involving no test result and 5 involving a previously negative test result) of the 326 specimens that were positive had not been previously identified within the VA system. The prevalence of HIV infection not previously documented within the VA system was lower than the total HIV prevalence, ranging from 0.0% to 1.7% among inpatients and from 0.1% to 2.8% among outpatients (Tables 2
In comparison with patients known to have HIV, patients who had undocumented HIV infection were more likely to be older (aged more than 55 years; P = .006) and less likely to have comorbid conditions (OR = 0.3; 95% CI = 0.15, 0.60; P < .001). The percentage of HIV infections that had not been documented within the VA system varied substantially between sites from 3% to 44% (Table 2
Indeterminate HIV Test Results
We used an anonymous serological survey involving more than 11000 specimens to evaluate the prevalence of HIV infection in 6 inpatient and 6 outpatient settings in a sample of geographically diverse VA health care sites. The prevalence of HIV in health care settings is important because it is a key determinant of the usefulness of HIV screening. The need for expanded screening for HIV has become clear as compelling evidence has accumulated that the current approach to identifying HIV infection has substantial limitations. According to CDC surveillance data, approximately 40% of patients diagnosed with HIV develop AIDS within a year.1 Evidence from the VA indicates that approximately 40% of patients have CD4 counts below 200/mm3 when they are diagnosed.18 These data indicate that close to half of patients have had HIV infection for many years before their diagnosis. In addition, risk-based screening, in which risk assessment precedes a decision to test for HIV, fails to identify a large proportion of people with HIV.19–21 This evidence has led the CDC to develop new guidelines that recommend one-time HIV screening in all health care settings unless the prevalence of undiagnosed HIV has been documented to be less than 0.1%.4 We found that the prevalence of undocumented, and probably undiagnosed, HIV infection varied from 0.14% to 2.27% (inpatient and outpatient samples combined) at our 6 sites. The overall prevalence of HIV (including both documented and undocumented HIV infection) was substantially higher, as expected. We also found that prevalence of HIV infection was higher among younger veterans and those with evidence of sexually transmitted diseases, pneumonia, and hepatitis B or C. Sexually transmitted infections and hepatitis are, in all likelihood, markers for unobserved risk behaviors. Of note, patients who had undocumented HIV infection were more likely to be older than 55 years than were patients who had documented HIV infection and they were less likely to have comorbid conditions. These findings underscore the importance of considering the possibility of HIV infection in older patients. A second important finding was that outpatient prevalence was higher than inpatient prevalence, probably a reflection of the fact that patients with HIV are seldom hospitalized. The only settings in which we did not find the prevalence of undocumented HIV to be greater than 0.1% were the inpatient services at 2 sites. This result should be interpreted cautiously, however, given that our sample was not of a sufficient size to exclude a prevalence above 0.1% and a single case of undocumented HIV infection would have resulted in a prevalence above the 0.1% threshold. We could not determine whether patients who had undocumented HIV infection had been tested outside the VA system. It is therefore possible that some of the patients we found to have undocumented HIV infection may have known of their HIV status. In our experience, however, it is rare for patients not to disclose that they have HIV, because the VA provides comprehensive care for the disease. Two sites reported higher proportions of undocumented HIV infection than did other sites. We do not know whether these differences were related to the patient population or to local practices regarding testing and documentation of test results. Further evaluation of these issues is an important area for additional research. We also found that 0.88% of all specimens tested had indeterminate Western blot results on the basis of the interpretation provided by the manufacturer. Of these specimens, one third had Western blot band patterns suggestive of acute HIV infection, raising the possibility that hospital admission may have been associated with an acute retroviral syndrome. Thus, our documented prevalence may be an underestimate given the possibility that some patients with indeterminate Western blot test results may have had acute HIV infection.
Implications for Screening An important question is whether our findings can be generalized to other settings. Our study was performed only in VA health care facilities, and the patients tested were overwhelmingly men. We chose our 6 VA sites to represent diversity in terms of location and different strata of documented HIV prevalence according to preexisting data. However, all of our centers were located in urban areas, and 5 were relatively large centers, with the sixth being medium in size. Practical considerations precluded us from using a probability sample of VA settings. However, we believe that our sample of sites represents a diverse group within the VA system that is probably representative of many urban VA centers. The demographics of the VA system differ from those of other health care systems, and therefore our findings may not apply to other care settings. Although there are few recent estimates of the prevalence of undiagnosed HIV infection in general health care settings, a recent blinded serological survey conducted in an academic medical center22 revealed that the prevalence of undiagnosed HIV in general medicine and trauma services ranged from 1.4% to 3.7%. This result suggests that the prevalence in other settings may be higher than the prevalence we found. As mentioned, the new CDC guideline recommends screening in health care settings unless the prevalence of HIV has been documented to be less than 0.1%.4 Although our results cannot necessarily be generalized to other settings, it should be noted that because blinded serological studies are expensive and logistically difficult, it would not be surprising if few other settings are able to document their HIV prevalence rates, particularly rates of undiagnosed HIV infection. In the absence of data specific to other settings, our results provide information that may be helpful to decisionmakers.
Current approaches to identifying HIV infection have failed to diagnose up to half of patients until late in the course of AIDS. Our findings, along with analyses of the cost effectiveness of HIV screening,1,2 indicate that the prevalence of undocumented HIV is sufficiently high that routine screening for the disease is warranted in the health care settings we evaluated.
This research was supported financially by the Health Services Research and Development Service, Department of Veterans Affairs (grant HII-99047-1). Note. The views expressed here are those of the authors and not necessarily the views of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Human Participant Protection
Peer Reviewed
Contributors Accepted for publication June 7, 2007.
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