US - Health Status of People Living With HIV

[Jim Allen]

An interesting read.

POZ.com article in full: https://www.poz.com/article/new-data-light-health-status-people-living-hiv

In Short:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released new data from the 2021 cycle of the Medical Monitoring Project (MMP), an annual representative survey of adults with diagnosed HIV in the United States.

For the latest MMP survey, which covered June 2021 through May 2022, a total of 9,700 people from 16 states were selected, and 3,995 of them opted to participate.

MMP reports information critical for achieving national goals, including data used to monitor five National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) quality-of-life indicators:

• The percentage of people with HIV who reported good or better health—meaning they rated their health as good, very good or excellent as opposed to poor or fair—was 69% in 2021, down from 72% in 2018 (2025 NHAS goal: 95%).

• The percentage who had an unmet need for mental health services was 28% in 2021, up from 24% in 2017 (2025 NHAS goal: 12%).

• The percentage who reported unstable housing or homelessness fell to 17% in 2021, down from 21% in 2018 (2025 NHAS goal: 11%).

• The percentage who reported being unemployed remained stable at 15% (2025 NHAS goal: 8%).

• The percentage who reported hunger or food insecurity was 16% in 2021, down from 21% in 2017 (2025 NHAS goal: 11%).

While 38% of respondents had household incomes below the federal poverty level, almost everyone (99%) had some type of health insurance or coverage for care or medications, including 42% with private insurance, 43% with Medicaid, 29% with Medicare and 47% with coverage through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program.

[numbersguy82]

That’s interesting… I mean hiv or otherwise, most of us are feeling less healthy after the pandemic. So maybe the slight drop is just that.

I’m not surprised about mental health. It’s really sickening to see psychiatrist in private practice switch to not accepting insurance or even become cash-only practices. It’s greed at a level that I can’t quite understand. Even with great insurance, I’ve struggled for the past three months to find a permanent psychiatrist that will take my insurance (any Insurance?) even while working with a social worker. I’m even willing to pay up front and get reimbursement, to no avail.

The best therapy and psychiatry I ever had was through a non-profit that focused on lower income. It would no longer be available to me because of my earnings, but there’s very clearly a huge hole in providership above the low income thresholds. Thankfully our virtual gatherings have been therapeutic for me 🤣

[Jim Allen]

That’s interesting… I mean hiv or otherwise, most of us are feeling less healthy after the pandemic. So maybe the slight drop is just that.

Yeah. I think I might be the exception that conforms to the rule. I loved not having to meet people face to face, no crowds, no traffic and nobody annoying me in the real world, empty pavements (Sidewalks), empty shops, people scared to get close, and no "social" visits; it was great.

I also got a lot of walking and swimming done during the pandemic.

[leatherman]

An interesting read.

Very interesting! With my background in math and computer science, it's no wonder I've always gravitated towards the data. Much of the volunteer work I did with the Ryan White Quality Committees was dealing with this kind of data at the local levels (county, TGA, state), looking for the issues, and determining interventions to raise the good numbers and lower the bad number.

I'm still reading through this report, but two things have blipped out to me so far.

1) the spilt in the distribution of sexual orientations of PLWH. 43% hetero- and 43% homo-sexual. I know we have a number of hetero-identifying members but I wonder if we'll see more heterosexual people posting here as time goes by?

2)ho, boy! Close to half of the people diagnosed with HIV are also co-infected with others STIs.

[numbersguy82]

Very interesting! With my background in math and computer science, it's no wonder I've always gravitated towards the data.

I didn’t know this about you! I just assumed you’ve always been a southern belle who hosted luncheons and such!

But back on topic, we did have a lengthy discussion about syphillis on our last virtual call. It’s just so dangerous to let that particular diagnosis linger without treatment.

[leatherman]

I just assumed you’ve always been a southern belle who hosted luncheons and such

my moniker isn't "lavender-man"; it's leatherman.  I've always been more of a "tie you up and spank you" kind of guy than a "mint juleps on the veranda" kind of guy. Although, since I've been a switch sometimes I was the the tied-up, spanked kind of guy too.

back to the topic

For instance, an estimated 63% of sexually active MSM engaged in sex while having sustained viral suppression, 51% had condom-protected sex, 25% had condomless sex with a partner on preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and 53% had sex with a person with HIV

in the last 12 months, I have been in each of those categories except one. Because Larry's ARVs don't really count as PrEP. LOL