Hierarchy of Determinants Underlying Death among HIV-Infected Patients in French Guiana

International audience; Objective: In order to determine how risk factors of death among HIV-infected patients in French Guiana interact with one another and to define high risk population segments, an alternative statistical method to Cox proportional hazards models was used. Patients and methods: Data from HIV+ patients followed in the three main hospitals of French Guiana were used. Data were extracted from the prospective French Hospital Database for HIV (FHDH). To examine the nature of the relationships between time of death since the first consultation and a set of predictor variables (age at enrolment, gender, nationality, CD4 count at enrolment, presence or absence of HAART at enrolment, a declared addiction, and mode of acquisition of the virus) a survival tree analysis was used. Survival rates at 5 years and 10 years and their 95% confidence interval were also calculated. Results: This analysis permitted to reveal a new specific subgroup of HIV+ patients particularly at risk in French Guiana not already mentioned in the literature: the HIV+ female patients with a declared addiction. Conclusions: Prevention and care in this vulnerable segment of the HIV+ population identified by this methodology should be reinforced.