A clinician-nurse model to reduce early mortality and increase clinic retention among high-risk HIV-infected patients initiating combination antiretroviral treatment

Table 2 Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of patients in High Risk Express Care (HREC) versus Routine Care

Variable	HREC n = 635	Routine care n = 4323	p value
Male gender	256 (40%)	1749 (41%)	0.945
Median (IQR) age	35.8 (30.5-42.4)	36.7 (30.6-43.1)	0.097
Median (IQR) CD4 at initiation of cART	46 (20-72)	46 (20-74)	0.908
WHO Clinical Stage III/IV at initiation of cART	418 (66%)	2966 (69%)	0.031
*Missing*	0 (0%)	89 (2.1%)
On TB treatment at cART initiation	204 (32%)	1514 (35%)	0.152
Clinic type
Referral hospital	217 (34%)	903 (21%)	< 0.001
District and sub-district hospitals	221 (35%)	2107 (49%)
Rural health centres	197 (31%)	1313 (30%)
Use of cotrimoxazole or dapsone within 28 days of cART initiation	632 (100%)	4097 (95%)	< 0.001
Travel > 1 h to clinic	452 (71%)	3318 (77%)	0.002

N.B. The only variable for which there were missing data was WHO Stage, as described in the table. This variable was not included in the propensity score model as it was not a significant predictor of the outcomes of interest