Socioeconomic differences in HIV/AIDS mortality in South Africa

OBJECTIVES: To quantify socioeconomic differences in the risk of HIV/AIDS mortality in South Africa for different measures of socioeconomic status. METHODS: Systematic literature search in Web of Knowledge and PubMed. Measures of relative risk (RR) were pooled separately for education, income, assets score and employment status as measures of socioeconomic status, using inverse variance weighted DerSimonian-Laird random effects meta-analyses. RESULTS: Ten studies were eligible for inclusion comprising over 175,000 participants and 6,700 deaths. For income (RR 1.55, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.15 – 2.09), assets score (RR 1.63, 95% CI 1.12 – 2.36) and employment status (RR 1.52, 95% CI 1.21 – 1.92), persons of low socioeconomic status had an over 50% higher risk of dying from HIV/AIDS. The RR 1.10 for education was not significant (95% CI 0.74 – 1.65). CONCLUSIONS: Future research should identify effective strategies to reduce HIV/AIDS mortality and alleviate the consequences of HIV/AIDS deaths, particularly for poorer households.

• Determinants of Health
  • Employment
  • Income
  • Education
• Population(s)
  • General HIV+ population