Tracking a sample of patients lost to follow‐up has a major impact on understanding determinants of survival in HIV‐infected patients on antiretroviral therapy in Africa

Objective  To date, data regarding the determinants of mortality in HIV‐infected patients starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Africa have been primarily derived from routine clinical care settings practicing the public health approach. Losses to follow‐up, however, are high in these settings and may lead to bias in understanding the determinants of mortality.

[1]  J. Sterne,et al.  Mortality of HIV-1-infected patients in the first year of antiretroviral therapy: comparison between low-income and high-income countries , 2006, The Lancet.

[2]  Danyu Lin,et al.  On fitting Cox's proportional hazards models to survey data , 2000 .

[3]  C. Yiannoutsos,et al.  Sampling-Based Approaches to Improve Estimation of Mortality among Patient Dropouts: Experience from a Large PEPFAR-Funded Program in Western Kenya , 2008, PloS one.

[4]  L. Ivers,et al.  Efficacy of antiretroviral therapy programs in resource-poor settings: a meta-analysis of the published literature. , 2005, Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

[5]  M. Diomande,et al.  Contribution of tuberculosis to slim disease in Africa , 1994, BMJ.

[6]  M. Battegay,et al.  Characteristics, determinants, and clinical relevance of CD4 T cell recovery to <500 cells/microL in HIV type 1-infected individuals receiving potent antiretroviral therapy. , 2005, Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

[7]  S. Gove,et al.  The WHO public-health approach to antiretroviral treatment against HIV in resource-limited settings , 2006, The Lancet.

[8]  Sydney Rosen,et al.  Patient Retention in Antiretroviral Therapy Programs in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review , 2007, PLoS medicine.

[9]  Kara Wools-Kaloustian,et al.  Viability and effectiveness of large-scale HIV treatment initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa: experience from western Kenya , 2006, AIDS.

[10]  D B Rubin,et al.  Rejoinder to Discussions on Addressing an Idiosyncrasy in Estimating Survival Curves Using Double Sampling in the Presence of Self‐Selected Right Censoring , 2001, Biometrics.

[11]  Nneka Emenyonu,et al.  Understanding Reasons for and Outcomes of Patients Lost to Follow-Up in Antiretroviral Therapy Programs in Africa Through a Sampling-Based Approach , 2010, Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes.

[12]  N. Ford,et al.  Scaling up of highly active antiretroviral therapy in a rural district of Malawi: an effectiveness assessment , 2006, The Lancet.

[13]  Jonathan AC Sterne,et al.  Prognosis of HIV-1-infected patients starting highly active antiretroviral therapy: a collaborative analysis of prospective studies , 2002, The Lancet.

[14]  A. Ferro-Luzzi,et al.  A simplified approach of assessing adult chronic energy deficiency. , 1992, European journal of clinical nutrition.

[15]  O. Kirk,et al.  Factors associated with a reduced CD4 lymphocyte count response to HAART despite full viral suppression in the EuroSIDA study , 2003, HIV medicine.

[16]  F. Dabis,et al.  Rapid scaling-up of antiretroviral therapy in 10 000 adults in Côte d'Ivoire: 2-year outcomes and determinants , 2008, AIDS.

[17]  Jeffrey N. Martin,et al.  Sampling-based approach to determining outcomes of patients lost to follow-up in antiretroviral therapy scale-up programs in Africa. , 2008, JAMA.

[18]  L. Sandvik,et al.  Predictors of mortality in HIV-infected patients starting antiretroviral therapy in a rural hospital in Tanzania , 2008, BMC infectious diseases.

[19]  J. Schafer Multiple imputation: a primer , 1999, Statistical methods in medical research.

[20]  L. Myer,et al.  Determinants of mortality and nondeath losses from an antiretroviral treatment service in South Africa: implications for program evaluation. , 2006, Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

[21]  B. Chi,et al.  Rapid scale-up of antiretroviral therapy at primary care sites in Zambia: feasibility and early outcomes. , 2006, JAMA.