Slower uptake of HIV antiretroviral therapy among Aboriginal injection drug users

SummaryObjectivesWe examined the time to antiretroviral therapy (ART) use among antiretroviral naïve HIV infected injection drug users participating in a prospective cohort study in Vancouver, Canada.MethodsTime to the initiation of ART was evaluated using Kaplan–Meier methods and Cox proportional hazards regression. The cohort was stratified based on Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal (primarily Caucasian) ethnicity.ResultsBetween May 1996 and May 2003, 312 HIV-infected individuals were enrolled into the cohort. At 24 months after enrolment, the rate of ART use was 29.2% among Aboriginal participants and was 53.7% among non-Aboriginal participants (log-rank P=0.023), and lower uptake of ART persisted in multivariate analyses (relative hazard=0.37 [95% CI: 0.15–0.93]; P=0.035).ConclusionsThese findings demonstrate lower uptake of HIV/AIDS care among Aboriginal injection drug users and demonstrate the need for interventions to improve access to HIV care among indigenous populations.