Background: We examined trends in AIDS-defining illnesses (ADIs) among individuals receiving highly active\r\nantiretroviral therapy (HAART) in British Columbia (BC), Canada to determine whether declines in ADIs could be\r\ncontributing to previously observed improvements in life-expectancy among HAART patients in BC since 1996.\r\nMethods: HAART-na�¯ve individuals aged = 18 years who initiated treatment in BC each of the following timeperiods\r\n1996 - 1998; 1999 - 2001; 2002 - 2004; 2005 - 2007 were included. The proportion of participants with\r\nreported ADIs were examined for each time period and trends were analyzed using the Cochran-Armitage Trend\r\nTest. Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine factors associated with ADIs.\r\nResults: A total of 3721 individuals (81% male) initiated HAART during the study period. A total of 251 reports of\r\nADIs were received from 214 unique patients. These occurred in a median of 4 months (IQR = 1-19 months) from\r\nHAART initiation. The proportion of individuals with a reported ADI did not change significantly from 4.6% in the\r\nearliest time period to 5.8% in the latest period (p = 0.181 for test of trend). There were no significant declines in\r\nany specific ADI over the study period. Multivariable Cox models found that individuals initiating HAART during\r\n2002-04 were at an increased risk of ADIs (AHR = 1.55; 95% CI 1.04-2.32) in comparison to 1996 - 98, but there\r\nwere no significant differences in other time periods.\r\nConclusions: Trends in reported ADIs among individuals receiving HAART since 1996 in BC do not appear to\r\nparallel improvements in life-expectancy over the same period.
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