University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Researcher Furthers Understanding of HIV/AIDS (Health Insurance and Initiation of Direct-Acting Antivirals for Hepatitis C in US Women with HIV): Immune System Diseases and Conditions – HIV/AIDS

2023 APR 21 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Current study results on HIV/AIDS have been published. According to news reporting out of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill by NewsRx editors, research stated, “Direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy for hepatitis C virus (HCV) is well tolerated, cost-effective, and yields high sustained virologic response rates, yet it has remained inaccessible to many patients due to cost. We evaluated the relationship between health insurance status and DAA initiation in an observational cohort of US women.”

The news journalists obtained a quote from the research from University of North Carolina Chapel Hill: “Women’s Interagency HIV Study participants with HIV and HCV (RNA+) reporting no prior hepatitis C treatment were followed for DAA initiation (2015-2019). We estimated risk ratios (RRs) of the relationship between time-varying health insurance status and DAA initiation, adjusting for confounders with stabilized inverse probability weights. We also estimated weighted cumulative incidences of DAA initiation by health insurance status. 139 women (74% Black) were included; at baseline, median age was 55 and 86% were insured. Most had annual household incomes $18,000 (85%); advanced liver fibrosis (21%), alcohol use (45%), and recreational drug use (35%) were common. Across 439 subsequent semiannual visits, 88 women (63%) reported DAA initiation. Compared to no health insurance, health insurance increased the likelihood of reporting DAA initiation at a given visit (RR, 4.94; 95% confidence limit [CL], 1.92-12.8). At two years, the weighted cumulative incidence of DAA initiation was higher among the insured (51.2%; 95% CL, 43.3%-60.6%) than the uninsured (3.5%; 95% CL, 0.8%-14.6%).”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Accounting for financial, clinical, behavioral, and sociodemographic factors over time, health insurance had a substantial positive effect on DAA initiation. Interventions to increase insurance coverage should be prioritized to increase uptake of HCV curative therapy for persons with HIV.”

For more information on this research see: Health Insurance and Initiation of Direct-Acting Antivirals for Hepatitis C in US Women with HIV. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 2023. The publisher for Clinical Infectious Diseases is Oxford University Press (OUP).

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciad204.

Our news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Andrew Edmonds, Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States of America. Additional authors for this research include Danielle F Haley, Jessie K Edwards, Catalina Ramirez, Audrey L French, Phyllis C Tien, Michael Plankey, Anjali Sharma, Michael Augenbraun, Eric C Seaberg, Kimberly Workowski, Maria L Alcaide, Svenja Albrecht, Adaora A Adimora.

ORCID is an identifier for authors and includes bibliographic information. The following is ORCID information for the authors of this research: Michael Plankey (http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4554-7483), Kimberly Workowski (http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9918-9493).

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