Pilot Program of Shared Assistance with Primary Care in Patients Living with HIV, and Satisfaction with The Healthcare Received

Abstract Background: There are few shared assistance programs with Primary Health Care (PHC) in PLWH. The aim was to develop a Pilot Program of shared HIV care in PLWH ensuring proper HIV control. Methods: Design : Prospective pilot project of a shared care intervention.Setting: HIV specialized outpatient consultations for HIV infection at Son Espases University Hospital which serves 2000 patients. Subjects: Patients who attended HIV specialized consultation between January 1 st and June 30 th , 2017. Intervention: Basal questionnaire on health services used by patients. HIV Training Program on HIV in Primary Health Care (PHC). Pilot Program of shared assistance (PPAC) with PHC. Main Outcomes : Maintenance of undetectable HIV viral load, antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence, AIDS and non-AIDS events, loss of follow up, and satisfaction questionnaire. Results: The basal questionnaire was filled out by 918 patients, with 108 (11.7%) patients reporting neither knowing nor having been visited by their GP. A total of 93 patients were included in the PPAC, with a mean age of 49.9 years (SD 11.7), and an average of 14.6 years since the HIV diagnosis. Eleven patients were followed up for less than six months and were excluded from the analysis. Median follow-up during the PPAC of the remaining 82 patients was 728 days (IQR 370-1070). Sixteen patients dropped out of the PPAC (19.5%), three died, three were lost to follow up, one was withdrawn due to medical criteria, and nine withdrew voluntarily.No patient presented any AIDS defining events, although eight patients presented non-AIDS events. All the patients had undetectable viral load (VL) and average ART adherence was 99.4% (SD1.4). The patient’s satisfaction score with PPAC was 8.64 (SD2.5). Conclusion: It is possible to establish shared care programs with PHC in selected patients with HIV infection, thereby reducing hospital visits while maintaining good adherence and virological control and achieving high patient satisfaction.