Table 2.
Baseline characteristics of patients starting ART in hospitals and health centres (HCs), stratified by gender (see Web-Table 1 for stratification by catchment area)
| Female patients (n=2395) | Male patients (n=1352) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
||||||
| Hospital | HC | p | Hospital | HC | p | Total | |
| Number of patients | 1086 | 1309 | 619 | 733 | 3747 | ||
| Median age in years (IQR) | 35 (30–45) | 39 (33–49) | 0.021 | 37 (30–48) | 42 (35–50) | 0.017 | 38 (31–48) |
| Median CD4 cell count/µl (IQR) | 183 (86–281) | 223 (142–296) | <0.001 | 138 (60–233) | 196 (102–276) | <0.001 | 194 (102–281) |
| CD4 categories (cells/µl) (%) | <0.001 | <0.001 | |||||
| 0–49 | 137 (12.6) | 77 (5.9) | 117 (18.9) | 87 (11.9) | 418 (11.2) | ||
| 50–99 | 163 (15.0) | 100 (7.6) | 112 (18.1) | 83 (11.3) | 458 (12.2) | ||
| 100–199 | 267 (42.6) | 368 (28.1) | 169 (27.3) | 191 (26.1) | 995 (26.6) | ||
| ≥ 200 | 486 (44.8) | 730 (55.8) | 197 (31.8) | 344 (46.9) | 1757 (46.9) | ||
| Missing | 33 (3.0) | 34 (2.6) | 24 (3.9) | 28 (3.8) | 119 (3.2) | ||
| Median haemoglobin (g/dl) | 11.3 (10.0–12.6) | 12 (11.0–13.0) | <0.001 | 12.4 (10.8–14.0) | 12.9 (11.5–14.7) | 0.004 | 11.9 (10.6–13.2) |
| Missing haemoglobin (%) | 422 (38.9) | 889 (67.9) | <0.001 | 272 (43.9) | 513 (69.9) | <0.001 | 2096 (55.9) |
| WHO stage (%) | <0.001 | <0.001 | |||||
| I/II | 607 (55.9) | 959 (73.4) | 242 (39.1) | 426 (58.2) | 2234 (59.7) | ||
| III/IV | 479 (44.1) | 348 (26.6) | 377 (60.9) | 306 (41.8) | 1510 (40.3) | ||
| NNRTI | 0.003 | 0.044 | |||||
| NVP based (%) | 421 (38.8) | 589 (45.0) | 126 (20.4) | 184 (25.1) | 1320 (35.2) | ||
| EFV based (%) | 658 (60.6) | 416 (54.7) | 488 (78.8) | 547 (74.6) | 2409 (64.6) | ||
| NRTI | |||||||
| 3TC/D4T (%) | 175 (16.1) | 312 (23.8) | <0.001 | 82 (13.3) | 181 (24.6) | <0.001 | 749 (19.9) |
| 3TC/AZT (%) | 339 (31.2) | 526 (40.2) | <0.001 | 156 (25.2) | 179 (24.4) | 0.740 | 1198 (31.9) |
| 3TC/TDF (%) | 567 (52.2) | 469 (35.8) | <0.001 | 381 (61.6) | 371 (50.6) | <0.001 | 1782 (47.6) |
IQR: interquartile range; NNRTI: non-nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor; NtRTI: nucleoside analogue reverse-transcriptase inhibitor; 3TC: lamivudine; D4T: stavudine; AZT: zidovudine; TDF: tenofovir.