Introduction: Assessment of incidence and factors associated with late vs. early human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) diagnosis among newly diagnosed patients referred to HIV treatment centres in Poland in the years 2006-2008.
Material and methods: Retrospective analysis of medical records of patients reported from eight regional centres for HIV treatment in Poland in years 2006-2008 was conducted. The study population consisted of 1132 HIV-infected pa-tients newly diagnosed with HIV infection, aged 17 years up. To describe characteris-tics of this group of patients in terms of clinical and immunological presentation mul-tivariate regression analysis of demographic and epidemiology data including: sex, age, mode of transmission, CD4 T cell count, and viral load at the time of diagnosis was performed.
Results: Among 1132 patients included in the study 564 (49.8%) were late presenters (LP) according to European consensus definition. In multivariate logistic analysis including sex, age and route of infection, as independent factors, age (OR = 1.06), intravenous drug use (OR = 2.17 for IVDU vs. MSM), and heterosexuality (OR = 2.07 for Hx vs. MSM) were risk factors for late testing. The same factors were pre-dictors of advanced HIV disease, as well as unknown route of infection (OR = 1.77; p < 0.05). However, multivariate regression analysis revealed that only advanced age was an independent factor influencing lower CD4 T cell count and late presentation (OR = 1.02 per 1 year of age, p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Nearly 50% of patients were diagnosed after the optimal time for antiretroviral treatment initiation, according to actual European and Polish guide-lines. These results strongly point out the necessity of further encouragement toward more frequent and earlier HIV testing.