South Africa - Treatment eligibility and retention in clinical HIV care: a regression-discontinuity study in South Africa. PLOS Medicine 2017

V1: Edited dataset for public distribution.

This paper examined the effect of immediate (vs. deferred) ART on retention in care using a regression discontinuity design.

The analysis included all patients (n=11,306) entering clinical HIV care with a first CD4 count between 12 August 2011 and 31 December 2012 in the Hlabisa HIV Treatment and Care Programme. We included data on all routine clinic visits and routine CD4 and viral load test dates from 12 August 2011 through 31 December 2013. During the period of study, patients were assigned to immediate vs. deferred ART eligibility, as determined by a CD4 count <350 cells/µL, per South African national guidelines. Patients referred to pre-ART were instructed to return every 6 months for CD4 monitoring. Patients initiated on ART were instructed to return at 6 and 12 months post-initiation and annually thereafter for CD4 and viral load monitoring. We assessed retention in HIV care at 12 months, as measured by the presence of a clinic visit, lab test, or ART initiation 6 to 18 months after initial CD4 test. Differences in retention between patients presenting just above vs just below the 350-cell threshold were estimated using local linear regression models with a data-driven bandwidth, and the algorithm for selecting the bandwidth chosen ex ante. Further details on study methods are available in the published work.

The replication dataset provided here is the analytical dataset for the study. It is a de-identified dataset with only the variables necessary to replicate the analysis. (To preserve confidentiality, we report ages in 5-yr intervals, dates in quarters, and mask the clinic names.) The replication data were constructed from raw data files from the ARTemis database on the Hlabisa HIV Treatment and Care Programme. Information on the Hlabisa HIV Treatment and Care Programme and ARTemis can be found in the Cohort Profile published as Houlihan et al. (2011) Int J Epidemiology. The raw data are available through request to the Africa Health Research Institute (www.ahri.org ).

Kind of Data

Biomeasures data

Units of Analysis

Individual