Table 1. Baseline characteristics of the patients.
| Variable | All | Cases | Controls | p value¶ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patients, no. | 147 | 54 | 93 | - | |||
| Female, no. (%) | 12 | (8.1) | 5 | (9.2) | 7 | (7.5) | 0.955 |
| Age at cohort entry, median years (IQR) | 46.7 | (40.1–51.1) | 47.8 | (42.1–52.4) | 46.1 | (40.0–51.0) | 0.377 |
| HIV transmission groups, no. (%) | 0.435 | ||||||
| IDU | 24 | (16.3) | 11 | (20.4) | 13 | (14.0) | |
| Non-IDU | 123 | (83.7) | 43 | (79.6) | 80 | (86.0) | |
| Education level*, no. (%) | 0.005 | ||||||
| Low | 68 | (46.2) | 32 | (59.2) | 36 | (38.7) | |
| Medium | 33 | (22.4) | 7 | (12.9) | 26 | (27.9) | |
| High | 30 | (20.4) | 6 | (11.1) | 24 | (25.8) | |
| Unknown | 16 | (10.8) | 9 | (16.6) | 7 | (7.5) | |
| Country of origin, no. (%) | 0.122 | ||||||
| Spain | 143 | (97.3) | 54 | (100) | 89 | (95.7) | |
| Other | 4# | (2.7) | 0 | (0) | 4 | (4.3) | |
| AIDS diagnosis at cohort entry, no. (%) | 21 | (14.2) | 13 | (24.0) | 8 | (8.6) | 0.012 |
| CD4 (cells/μL) at cohort entry$, no. (IQR) | 252 | (69–475) | 86 | (29–247) | 360 | (160–555) | 0.001 |
| Plasma HIV viral load (log10, copies/mL) at cohort entry$, median (IQR) | 4.43 | (3.56–5.25) | 4.77 | (2.73–5.37) | 4.39 | (3.68–5.16) | 0.168 |
| Patients with virological suppression&, no. (%) | 28 | (19.0) | 12 | (22.2) | 16 | (17.2) | 0.596 |
| Patients on treatment, no. (%), | 34 | (23.1) | 18 | (33.3) | 16 | (17.2) | 0.042 |
| Hepatitis C virus coinfection, no. (%) | 30 | (20.4) | 15 | (27.7) | 15 | (16.1) | 0.028 |
| Follow-up¥, median years (IQR) | 2.1 | (0.70–4.48) | 0.79 | (0.25–2.39) | 2.98 | (1.43–5.07) | 0.001 |
IQR, interquartile range; IDU, injection drug users.
¶p value between cases and control groups: Wilcoxon or Chi-squared tests were used where appropriate.
* Education level definition was based on the level of education completed at cohort entry, and subjects were classified into three levels: low, individuals with no education or with primary education; medium, individuals who completed secondary education; and high, individuals who completed university education.
$Median (IQR) difference of days between cohort inclusion to CD4/viral load measurements was 0 (0–5) days
&Virological suppression was defined as an HIV RNA < 200 copies/ml in the nearest determination to the biomarkers measurement.
#The four patients were born in Latin America.
¥, Years from cohort inclusion to which happened first: death, lost of follow-up or administrative censoring