Abstract

HELENA, Ernani Tiaraju de Santa; MAFRA, Mara Lúcia  and  SIMES, Maikelli. Survival of people Living with AIDS and associated factors in the Municipality of Blumenau, State of Santa Catarina, Brazil, 1997-2004. Epidemiol. Serv. Saúde [online]. 2009, vol.18, n.1, pp.45-53. ISSN 1679-4974.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5123/S1679-49742009000100005.

This study describes the characteristics of people living with aids in the Municipality of Blumenau, Sate of Santa Catarina, Brazil, and factors associated to their survival. It was evaluated people aged 13 years or more registered in the Notifiable Diseases Information System (Sinan) and the Mortality Information System (SIM) - booth coordinated by the Ministry of Health of Brazil -, diagnosed with HIV/aids, between 1997 and 2004. Data was described, and calculated the lethality rate. The risk of death was estimated using Cox proportional hazards model, and Kaplan-Meier survival curves for survival analysis. The authors observed 66.3% of males in 650 studied cases, 61.7% aged 30-49, 75.5% heterosexual, and 76.1% cases of low educational level. Lethality rate estimate was of 24.2%. The analysis of survival showed it lower between injection drug users, non-specialized health service clients, low educational level cases, and HIV diagnosed individuals with CD4⁺ T lymphocytes lower than 200. Multivariate analysis suggests low educational level and low counts of CD4⁺ lymphocytes predictors of less survival. It's recommended to improve specialized health care - and regular follow-up - of low educational level groups to get better survival.

Keywords : acquired immunodeficiency syndrome; survival analysis; educational status.

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