Among more than 1.4 million HIV-related hospitalizations in the United States, in-hospital mortality remained high, especially in men and Hispanic patients, according to the findings of a 6-year retrospective analysis.
To better understand why HIV-related in-hospital deaths remain high across different populations, Muhammad Sohaib Asghar, MBBS, MD, of AdventHealth in Sebring, Florida, and colleagues analyzed trends by age, gender, and race/ethnicity. The team used the National Inpatient Sample data from 2016 to 2022 to identify patients with HIV and used hospital discharge weights for national representation.
The analysis included more than 289,000 HIV-related hospitalizations, which represented a weighted size of 1,445,475 hospital discharges. Patients were a median age of 50.2 years, and most were men (68.3%). More than half of the population was African American (51.8%), followed by White (29.6%), Hispanic (13.5%), and other (4.9%) race/ethnicity.
The findings, which Sohaib Asghar presented at IDWeek 2025, showed that the age-adjusted mortality rate (AAMR) was higher in men compared with women: 7,029 per 100,000 hospitalizations among men, versus 5,644 per 100,000 in women. Patients who were Hispanic had the highest AAMR compared with other races/ethnicities (8,184 per 100,000).
In addition, while the researchers observed a gradual increase in mortality for both genders, men showed a steeper rise, with a 3% annual percent change over the 6 years. They also saw an upward trend in mortality among Asian, Pacific Islander, and American Indian populations.
The greatest number of deaths were associated with patients living in the West region, nonmetropolitan areas, and those admitted to medium-to-large bed-size hospitals.
Secondary outcomes, such as length of hospital stay and inflation-adjusted costs, were also analyzed by the team. The average hospital stay was longest for Black and Hispanic patients. Costs were slightly higher for men.
“Utilizing mortality data from large databases can serve as a valuable screening tool for targeted public health surveillance and allocation of resources to obtain further development of tailored health programs and interventions aimed particularly at allocation of resources in reducing the impact of HIV-related deaths,” the researchers concluded.
Reference
Sohaib Asghar M, Ansari Shaik A, Duharte M, Duharte-Vidaurre L. In-patient mortality trends caused by HIV infection in the United States: A retrospective national database healthcare resource utilization
analysis from 2016-2022. 359. Presented at: IDWeek 2025, Oct. 19-22, 2025, Atlanta, GA.
