Missed Appointments Are a Predictive Marker for Treatment Failure

Although retention in care is considered an essential element of quality HIV care, there is as yet no standard definition for measuring retention. Measures that have been used include appointments missed and medical visits at regularly defined intervals. Now, in a retrospective cohort study involving patients receiving expert HIV care at Veterans Health Administration clinics for at least 24 months, researchers have examined the association between four retention-in-care measures involving appointments (annual, infrequent, missed, and missed or infrequent) and clinical outcomes (primary outcomes of viral loads and CD4-cell counts at 24 months and secondary outcomes of AIDS progression, emergency department [ED] visits, antiretroviral therap…