Incidence, prevalence and mortality of HIV/AIDS across different levels of human development index: A global perspective

Abstract

Background: HIV/AIDS has asserted its pandemic status by claiming more than 35 million lives so far. The disproportionate burden of HIV/AIDS across the globe in terms of mortality, incidence and prevalence rates intrigued researchers to examine and evaluate the degree and direction of a two-way association between the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and national development across different levels of HDI to formulate the policies. The present analysis is to concentrate directional influence of HDI on these rates. Data and Method: Age-standardized HIV/AIDS mortality, prevalence, and incidence rates of 179 countries were extracted from Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. The human development index along with its 4 components were obtained from Human Development Report 2016. The association between each of the rates and HDI was judged by Spearman correlation, Linear and Quantile regression analysis, and the Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: HIV/AIDS mortality, prevalence, and incidence rates were found to be inversely correlated with national HDI (r =-0.707,-0.677,-0.557 respectively; P < .001), as well as the 4 indicators of HDI. Countries in Low HDI group were found to experience higher burden of HIV/AIDS in terms of these rates than that of Medium, High, and Very high HDI countries. Conclusions: Lower development status characterized by low HDI values was found to increase the burden of HIV/AIDS around the world. Higher levels of deprivation in terms of Health, Education, and Economy were not only found to affect the overall well-being but might just raise the severity of HIV/AIDS across the regions. Hence for HIV/AIDS control or eradication, development could be the key aspect; hence recommended that special attention should be paid to develop an enabling environment in the countries of lower HDI groups. © 2018, Indian Journal of Public Health Research and Development. All rights reserved.