General practitioner involvement and patient outcomes in HIV management

We undertook this study to try to determine whether disease outcomes were poorer in patients with HIV infection whose general practitioner (GP) was unaware of their status compared with those whose GP was aware. The notes of 375 HIV-positive patients attending Edinburgh's genitourinary (GU) medicine clinic were reviewed. The GPs of 292 patients (78%) had been informed of their patient's HIV infection. Advancing disease was associated with disclosure of the status to GPs (P = 0.037) but no significant association was found between informing GPs and the viral load results of treated (P = 0.389) and untreated patients (P = 0.070). Twenty-three percent of patients had had one or more bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STIs) while receiving their HIV care at a GU medicine clinic. Patients diagnosed with an STI were less likely to disclose their HIV status to their GP (P < 0.0005). Non-disclosure of the HIV status to a GP may be a predictor of unsafe sexual practices.