We examined clinical outcomes, patient characteristics and trends over time of non-medically supervised treatment interruptions (TIs) from a free-of-charge antiretroviral therapy (ART) programme in British Columbia (BC), Canada.
Data from ART-naïve individuals > or =18 years old who initiated triple combination highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) between January 2000 and June 2006 were analysed. Participants having > or =3 month gap in HAART coverage were defined as having a TI. Cox proportional hazards modelling was used to examine factors associated with TIs and to examine factors associated with resumption of treatment.
A total of 1707 participants were study eligible and 643 (37.7%) experienced TIs. TIs within 1 year of ART initiation decreased from 29% of individuals in 2000 to 19% in 2006 (P