Table 3.

Characteristics of PP1 HIV-positive participants compared to HIV-positive individuals in the 1985–2016 PHAC surveillance data^a

Demographic Characteristic	Positive Plus One Data (N = 355)			PHAC Data (N = 84,409)			p-value
	N	%	95% CI	N	%	95% CI
Age at diagnosis	348	100	–	79,874	100	–	< 0.001
< 15	9	2.6	0.9–4.3	657	0.8	0.8–0.9
15–19	14	4.0	2.0–6.1	1323	1.7	1.6–1.8
20–29	148	42.5	37.3–47.8	19,952	25.0	24.7–25.3
30–39	113	32.5	27.5–37.4	30,083	37.7	37.3–38.0
40–49	53	15.2	11.4–19.0	18,394	23.0	22.7–23.2
≥ 50	11	3.2	1.3–5.0	9465	11.8	11.6–12.1
Unknown/Missing	7b	–	–	4535c	–	–
Gender	355	100	–	80,134	100		< 0.001
Male	239	67.3	62.4–72.2	64,127	80.0	79.8–80.3
Female	108	30.4	25.6–35.2	14,758	18.4	18.2–18.7
Sex not reported/	4	1.1	0.0–2.3	1249	1.6	1.5–1.7
Transexual/Transgender
Otherd	4	1.1	0.0–2.3	–	–	–
Sexual orientatione	348	100	–	45,554	100	–	< 0.001
Heterosexual	141	40.5	35.3–45.7	19,316g	42.4	42.0–42.9
MSM	195f	56.0	50.8–61.3	26,238h	57.6	57.1–58.1
Other	12	3.5	1.5–5.4	–	–	–
Missing	7	–	–	34,580i	–	–
Race/ethnicityj	348	100	–	12,453	100	–	< 0.001
White	220	63.2	58.1–68.3	5528	44.4	43.5–45.3
Black	25	7.2	4.5–9.9	2448	19.7	19.0–20.4
Indigenousk	34	9.8	6.6–12.9	3076	24.7	24.0–25.5
Hispanic	33	9.5	6.4–12.6	422	3.4	3.1–3.7
East/Southeast Asian	11	3.2	1.3–5.0	528	4.2	3.9–4.6
South Asian/West Asian/Arab	10	2.9	1.1–4.6	287	2.3	2.1–2.6
Other	15	4.3	2.2–6.5	164	1.3	1.1–1.5
Missing	7	–	–	31,145l	–	–
Region	352	100	–	84,409	100	–	< 0.001
British Columbia	37	10.5	7.3–13.7	15,529	18.4	18.1–18.7
Alberta	19	5.4	3.0–7.8	6981	8.3	8.1–8.5
Saskatchewan	22	6.3	3.7–8.8	2341	2.8	2.7–2.9
Manitoba	8	2.3	0.7–3.8	2350	2.8	2.7–2.9
Ontario	205	58.2	53.1–63.4	36,319	43.0	42.7–43.4
Quebec	41	11.6	8.3–15.0	19,111	22.6	22.4–22.9
Atlantic	20	5.7	3.3–8.1	1652	2.0	1.9–2.1
Territories	0	–	–	126	0.1	0.1–0.2
Missing	3	–	–	0	–	–

Abbreviations: PP1 Positive Plus One, PHAC Public Health Agency of Canada

^a PHAC surveillance data include a lot of individuals who are no longer alive, primarily those who were infected during the pre-ART era. It should be noted that the early Canadian HIV epidemic primarily involved individuals who identified as White MSM whereas more recently the Canadian HIV epidemic has involved more individuals of colour and individuals who identified as heterosexual

^b This category includes missing responses in Positive Plus One data

^c This category includes “unknown” and “not reported” in 1985–2016 PHAC data

^d This category includes “two-spirited man,” “intersex,” “does not identify,” and “other” responses in Positive Plus One data

^e Sexual orientation data were not available from PHAC data. Exposure categories from PHAC data were used instead

^f This category includes men who identified as “gay,” “bisexual,” “two-spirited,” or “transsexual man who had sex with men,” “transsexual man,” “two-spirited man” in Positive Plus One data. This category also includes participants who identified as “gay,” “bisexual,” “queer,” or “two-spirited” and who were male in Positive Plus One data

^g This category includes “IDU” and “heterosexual contact” from PHAC data

^h This category includes “MSM” and “MSM/IDU” from PHAC data

ⁱ This category includes “blood/blood products,” “other,” “no identified risk,” and “not reported” from PHAC data

^j For all provinces and territories for PHAC data, race/ethnicity information were not available before 1998 and race/ethnicity data were not available for Ontario before 2009

^k This category includes “Aboriginal” from PHAC data

^l For PHAC data, race/ethnicity information was not submitted by Quebec or British Columbia