FIGURE 1.

Classification of primary care utilization by disease severity and visit frequency. (A) Classification of disease severity at time of the diagnosis of AIDS. Patients were categorized into 4 levels of disease severity (low, moderate, high, and very high) at time of the diagnosis of AIDS based on CD4 cell count level and severity of AIDS-defining illness. The 4 categories of disease severity were associated with distinct levels of risk. Patients classified with very high, high, and moderate disease severity had a relative risk of death of 9.1, 2.9, (P < .0001), and 1.6 (P < .07), respectively, compared with patients with low disease severity. (B) Classification of primary care utilization by disease severity. We assumed that patients with very high disease severity would receive at least 1 primary care visit a month, while patients with low disease severity would have at least 1 visit every 2 months. This corresponded to the lower quintile of average monthly visits within each disease severity category and was classified as infrequent primary care.