Hospitalization Rate 5 Times Higher in Patients With HIV-Associated Wasting

In people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), HIV-associated wasting is common and associated with all-cause health care costs 1.3 times higher than without HIV-associated wasting, according to findings from a retrospective analysis.

“People with HIV-associated wasting are hospitalized 5 times more,” researchers wrote, “and have twice as many visits to emergency departments than people without HIV-associated wasting.”

The analysis included 42,587 patients with HIV with from the IBM MarketScan Commercial, Medicare Supplemental, and Medicaid databases.

The overall prevalence of HIV-associated wasting in the study population was 18.3%: 17.9% among patients taking antiretroviral therapy and 19.1% among patients not taking antiretroviral therapy, according to the study. By payer type, HIV-associated wasting prevalence was 23.5% for Medicaid and 7.5% for commercial or Medicare supplemental plans.

Patients with HIV-associated wasting had more comorbidities and opportunistic infections than patients without HIV-associated wasting, the study found. The liklihood of being hospitalized was 71.1% in patients with HIV-associated wasting compared with 32.1% in patients without HIV-associated wasting.

Annual hospitalizations were 1.0 for patients with HIV-associated wasting compared with 0.2 without HIV-associated wasting. Annual emergency department visits were 3.0 for patients with HIV-associated wasting compared with 1.3 without.

Per patient, average annualized total all-cause costs—which included payments for hospitalizations, emergency department visits, outpatient visits, and pharmacy use—were 1.3 times higher with HIV-associated wasting.

“These results highlight the high economic burden of HIV-associated wasting to the health care system,” researchers wrote, “as well as the need for improved monitoring and treatment of HIV-associated wasting to reduce the health care costs.”

Reference:
Siddiqui J, Samuel SK, Hayward B, et al. The economic burden of HIV-associated wasting in the era of modern antiretroviral therapy. J Manage Care Spec Pharm. Published online August 8, 2022. doi:10.18553/jmcp.2022.22097