Spatial Epidemiology of HIV Infection

National Taiwan University

Status

Completed

Conditions

HIV Infections

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Study type

Observational

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT01377272

200808048R

Details and patient eligibility

About

Data will be extracted from the National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) medical records database, geocoded according to the street address so that the case number, incidence, etc could be mapped. The spatial data would be used to detect the aggregation of HIV cases, existence of "hot spots" and then determine if they may merit further investigation or may have occurred by chance. The results from these GIS-based analyses would address local variations in HIV prevalence and transmission.

Full description

The transmission routes of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are well known and many control programs focusing on risk groups and behavior have been undertaken. However, the risk factors of HIV transmission are not only at individual level (eg: demographic, behavior, and genetic risk factors), socioeconomic and environmental factors also take important roles. In Taiwan, few researches explored the spatial distribution of HIV infection. Studies in other countries observed a significant geographic variation in HIV infection. To understand the spatial pattern of HIV infection in depth, the present study aims to retrospectively investigate the epidemiological and geographic characteristics of HIV infection using the medical records database of National Taiwan University Hospital. A Geographic information system (GIS) and spatial statistics will be used to analyze the geographic patterns to determine whether spatial dispersion or clustering. There are two aims of this study. One is to investigate the epidemiology of HIV infection in Taipei City. The second is to analyze the spatial characterizes of HIV infection, including disease mapping, geographic correlation studies, and identifying the presence of HIV clusters and their potential spatial risk factors. In addition, we want to examine whether there are different distributions between different classificatory groups. Finally, we hope that our findings would give some direction for local health and policy planners to improve the HIV intervention and prevention strategies

Enrollment

1,264 patients

Sex

All

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria