HIV/AIDS Main findings

One of the major killer diseases in the world is HIV/AIDS. Sexual contact, sharing of sharp items, and fluid exchange all contribute to its spread. The research article focuses on the infection rates in South Africa's rural areas. He gathers data for the study using both qualitative and quantitative methods. According to the research, changes in the various rates and age distribution of mortality as a result of other causes were revealed by trends in the HIV-deleted life expectancy. The article's conclusion shows that women in South Africa's rural areas had better survival rates than male affected individuals. My selected article is “Mass HIV Treatment and Sex Disparities in Life Expectancy: Demographic Surveillance in Rural South Africa” by Jacob, Sidney, Noah, Frank, and Till. The article employs both qualitative and quantitative methods in its study. The research questions on sex disparities and HIV treatment in connection with life expectancy in Rural South Africa has been effectively covered and investigated by the article.

Research that has already been done regarding the chosen topic

A lot of research has already been regarding the topic of HIV/AIDS. Previous research in the field has been conducted to identify the rate of the spread of the disease across the globe as well as some of the measures that are being employed to help in addressing the issue. A narrow research on the same topic focuses on the lack of knowledge and education as one of the main reasons behind the high rates of HIV infection among the sub-Saharan Africa rural homes. Apparently, women have higher rates of HIV testing and linkage to care as compared to the male population. Men tend to initiate lower ART at a lower CD4 as compared to the female while women are more likely to be retained in the Pre-ART (Bor, Rosen, Chimbindi, Haber, Herbst & Mutevedzi, 2015).

Methodology used to conduct the research

Data was collected on all the deaths that occurred between 2001 to 2011, in the rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The subjects included 52,964 women and 45,688 men aged above 15 years. The cause of death was ascertained by verbal autopsy, and demographic data was linked at an individual level to the clinical records from the public sectors and HIV care programs. The Sex-specific trends in adult life expectancy were calculated (Bor, Rosen, Chimbindi, Haber, Herbst & Mutevedzi, 2015). Finally, the proportions of the HIV deaths that accrued between the men and women at the different stages of the HIV cascade care were calculated and analyzed. A mixed methodology was used because it entailed the use of both secondary data and manipulation of the existing data for the research.

Main findings

The paper mainly relied on the secondary analysis of the de-identified data. All the ethical standards were employed in the collection of data. The targeted population in the research was households from Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa. Dates of birth and death were all obtained from the population under surveillance in the research study. All the deaths were coded as having been caused by HIV and the main research methods used in the process were interviews and questionnaires. Moreover, all the TB-related deaths were recorded to having been HIV caused. Dates and the causes of death, in this case, were demarcated as a household proxy, and this served as an effective method to ascertain the data that had been obtained (Bor, Rosen, Chimbindi, Haber, Herbst & Mutevedzi, 2015).

The research mainly focused on the life expectancy and HIV. Clearly, life expectancy is a period measure and may differ from the average length of life and may range within the targeted population cohort. In the quest for assessing the contribution of the HIV-related trends in adult mortality as well as the effects of HIV aids to the life expectancy among the women and men (Bor, Rosen, Chimbindi, Haber, Herbst & Mutevedzi, 2015). Based on the research, trends in the HIV-deleted life expectancy revealed changes in the various rate and age distribution of mortality as a result of other causes. Some of the assumptions in the research prove that a lot of life among the men and women has been lost due to HIV. The research also identified that if the ART-scale up would have the same proportional HIV mortality effect on the men and women, then the ratio of the HIV mortality for the men and women will be constant over a period.

Summary/ Conclusion of the article

Based on the presented results, women showcased higher chances of survival as compared to the male gender. During 2001-2011, the HIV-caused deaths remained constant, indicating that the changes in the adult life expectancy were driven by the changes in the HIV mortality (Bor, Rosen, Chimbindi, Haber, Herbst & Mutevedzi, 2015). Clearly, due to the lower mortality risks among the women, they have a larger potential gains in the ART scale up as compared to the men. The results also showcased that the women were at a higher chance of recovering from the HIV-caused infections over time before the ART scale-up. The interpretation of the HIV caused deleted life expectancy could be achieved in the presence of the HIV mortality among the population, and this reveals the interdependence between the variables.

Due to the differences in the age-specific HIV mortality rates among the male and the female, there is substantial cross-sectional significances and heterogeneity in age-specific female-to-male HIV mortality rate ratios (Bor, Rosen, Chimbindi, Haber, Herbst & Mutevedzi, 2015). The mass provision of the ART in the public sector in South Africa has ended up leading to a reduction the HIV mortality among the men and women. It should, however, be noted that there has been a significant decline in the mortality among the women as compared to the men population in the country. The access to the life-prolonging treatment has not only led to a reduction in the mortality among the male and female gender, but also the natural decompression of the female–male adult life expectancy gap.

References

Bor, J., Rosen, S., Chimbindi, N., Haber, N., Herbst, K., & Mutevedzi, T. et al. (2015). Mass HIV Treatment and Sex Disparities in Life Expectancy: Demographic Surveillance in Rural South Africa. Plos Med, 12(11), e1001905. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001905