Abstract:
Even though the use of ART has brought a significant reduction in the mortality and morbidity of patients living with HIV/AIDS, a number of patients still die after the start of ART. The main objective of this study was to identify and describe factors associated with mortality among HIV infected patients who are taking ART in Hossana District Queen Elleni Mohamad Memorial Hospital. The data for the study was obtained from Hossana District Queen Elleni Mohamad Memorial Hospital ART clinic. The HIV infected patients 15 years of age and who are under ART from March 2009 up to May 2015 were included in the study. So as to meet our objective logistic regression and multilevel logistic regression models were used. A total of 400 adult HIV infected patients who are taking ART were included in the study. Out of these patients, 18.75% of them were dead. The results obtained from standard logistic regression analysis showed that age, level of education, alcohol, baseline weight, woreda, TB status and baseline CD4 count were found to be significant factors of mortality of HIV infected patients taking ART in Hossana District Queen Elleni Mohamad Memorial Hospital. The multilevel logistic regression analysis showed that the variance of the random component related to the intercept term was found to be statistically significant implying variation in mortality of HIV infected patients among the woredas where they live. It was also found that age, level of education, alcohol, baseline weight, TB status and baseline CD4 count were significant determinants of variations of mortality of HIV infected patients among woredas. However, the factors that had significant effect on mortality of the patients did not show underlying variations across woredas.
