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. 2006 Feb 27;6:19. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-6-19

Table 1.

Demographic and Clinical Characteristics of Study Cohort (N = 349)Stratified by Housing Status at Baseline *

Categorical measures, % Homeless N = 101 Not homeless N = 248 p-value
Female 13 24 0.02
Race/ethnicity 0.29
 Black 38 47
 Hispanic 26 21
 White 37 32
High school graduate 49 65 0.005
Health insurance 98 99.6 0.15
Prescribed antiretroviral medications§ 47 64 0.001
Physical injury§ 17 9 0.04
Physical or sexual abuse
 Lifetime 78 82 0.40
 Recent § 14 7 0.05
Jail § 36 26 0.05
Substance use||
 Alcohol 45 42 0.60
 Cocaine 21 25 0.36
 Heroin 16 8 0.04
Continuous measures, N [std]
Age 40.8 [6.8] 40.5 [7.5] 0.70
CD4 cell count 405 [291] 399 [273] 0.90
HIV RNA (log10) 47K [95K] 26K [68K] 0.05
Depressive symptoms ** 27.2 [14.13] 20.2 [12.08] < 0.0001
Addiction Severity Index: ††
 Alcohol composite score 0.25 [0.25] 0.18 [0.20] 0.009
 Drug composite score 0.13 [0.12] 0.11 [0.10] 0.05

* The majority (56%)of study participants were recruited through from the Boston Medical Center HIV Diagnostic Evaluation Unit. The remaining from posted flyers 17%; Boston Medical Center Primary Care Clinic 13%; respite facility for homeless persons 5%; methadone clinic 4%; subject referrals 4%; and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center 2%.

Categories are not mutually exclusive, so total number will >100%

Private, Medicare, Medicaid, or special publicly funded health insurance for individuals with HIV-infection

§ Previous 6 months

||Previous 30 days

Laboratory tests collected as part of clinical care were used if performed within six months of the interview. When clinical samples were unavailable, the Boston Medical Center Clinical Laboratory evaluated blood samples collected for study purposes.

** Depressive symptoms were measured with the 20-item the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale

†† Range of possible scores 0–1 with a higher score indicating worse addiction severity.