Do loss to follow-up and XXXX rates from @entity34 care vary across primary health care facilities and hospitals in south Ethiopia? A retrospective follow-up study.

@entity1 @entity404 @entity3109 @entity378 @entity204 @entity34
BACKGROUND: Decentralization and task shifting has significantly improved access to @entity34 ( @entity34 ). Many studies conducted to determine the attrition rate in Ethiopia have not compared attrition rates between hospitals and health centers in a relatively recent cohort of @entity1 . This study compared @entity204 and loss to follow-up (LTFU) rates among @entity34 @entity1 in hospitals and health centers in south Ethiopia. METHODS: Data routinely collected from @entity1 aged older than 15 years who started @entity34 between July 2011 and August 2012 in 20 selected health facilities (12 being hospitals) were analyzed. The outcomes of interest were LTFU and @entity204 . The data were entered, cleaned, and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 20.0 and Stata version 12.0. Competing-risk regression models were used. RESULTS: The service years of the facilities were similar (median 8 and 7.5 for hospitals and health centers, respectively). The mean @entity1 age was 33.7  9.6 years. The median baseline @entity404 count was 179 (interquartile range 93-263) cells/mm(3). A total of 2,356 @entity1 -years of observation were made with a median follow-up duration of 28 (interquartile range 22-31) months; 24.6% were either dead or LTFU, resulting in a retention rate of 75.4%. The @entity204 rates were 3.0 and 1.5 and the LTFU rate were 9.0 and 10.9 per 100 @entity1 -years of observation in health centers and hospitals, respectively. The competing-risk regression model showed that the gap between testing and initiation of @entity34 , body mass index, World Health Organization clinical stage, @entity3109 prophylaxis, age, facility type, and educational status were independently associated with LTFU. Moreover, baseline @entity378 , poor functional status, and follow-up at a health center were associated with an elevated probability of @entity204 . CONCLUSION: We observed a higher @entity204 rate and a lower LTFU rate in health centers than in hospitals. Most of the associated variables were also previously documented. Higher LTFU was noticed for @entity1 with a smaller gap between testing and initiation of treatment.
