Research Article
Reaching the Unreached: Providing Quality Care to HIV-Infected Children through Telemedicine—An Innovative Pilot Initiative from Maharashtra, India
Table 2
Information about the population and other characteristics of 59 ART centers, Maharashtra, India.
| | All | Nonlinked | Linked (irregular) | Linked (regular) | value |
| | Information about children in these centers | | | | | | | Total | 5411 (100) | 2608 (100) | 1365 (100) | 1438 (100) | | | Age groups | | | | | | | 0-4.9 | 937 (17) | 430 (16) | 249 (18) | 258 (18) | 0.49 | | 5-9.9 | 1244 (23) | 595 (23) | 315 (23) | 334 (23) | | | 10-14.9 | 1750 (32) | 847 (32) | 425 (31) | 478 (33) | | | 15-18 | 1480 (27) | 736 (28) | 376 (28) | 368 (26) | | | Sex | | | | | | | Male | 2977 (55) | 1386 (53) | 795 (58) | 796 (55) | 0.009 | | Female | 2434 (45) | 1222 (47) | 570 (42) | 642 (45) | | | Information about centers | | | | | | | All | 59 | 28 | 12 | 19 | | | Type of centers | | | | | | | Civil hospital | 25 (42) | 3 (11) | 7 (58) | 15 (79) | <0.001 | | Medical college | 17 (29) | 14 (50) | 3 (25) | 0 (0) | | | Subdistrict hospital | 12 (20) | 6 (21) | 2 (17) | 4 (21) | | | Municipal corporation hospital | 5 (8) | 5 (18) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | | | Number of medical officers | | | | | | | Median (range) | 2 (1-3) | 3 (1-3) | 2 (1-3) | 2 (1-3) | 0.15 | | Education of the medical officer | | | | | | | Postgraduate | 52 (88) | 23 (82) | 10 (83) | 19 (100) | 0.13 | | Undergraduate | 7 (12) | 5 (18) | 2 (17) | 0 (0) | | | Pediatrician in the ART center | | | | | | | Yes | 16 (27) | 8 (29) | 4 (33) | 4 (21) | 0.80 | | No | 43 (73) | 20 (71) | 8 (67) | 15 (79) | | | Years of experience | | | | | | | Median (range) | 4 (0.2–10) | 5 (0.3–10) | 3 (0.4–8) | 4 (0.2–9) | 0.44 | | Clinical features of the study population | | | | | | | Clinical group | | | | | | | Pre-ART | 1735 (32) | 855 (33) | 428 (31) | 452 (31) | 0.55 | | ART | 3676 (68) | 1753 (67) | 937 (69) | 986 (69) | | | Baseline CD4 missing | | | | | | | Yes | 248 (5) | 107 (4) | 83 (6) | 58 (4) | 0.009 | | No | 5163 (95) | 2501 (96) | 1282 (94) | 1380 (96) | | | Baseline CD4 | | | | | | | Median (IQR) | 408 (209-765) | 415 (213-765) | 386 (179-748) | 420 (217-771) | 0.009 | | Latest CD4 missing | | | | | | | Yes | 1035 (19) | 554 (21) | 352 (26) | 129 (9) | <0.001 | | No | 4376 (81) | 2054 (79) | 1013 (74) | 1309 (91) | | | Latest CD4 count | | | | | | | Median (IQR) | 486 (267-801) | 493 (268-834) | 449.5 (242-791) | 497.5 (295-776) | 0.01 |
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Highest education among all the medical officers; highest years of experience among all the medical officers. |
