A county-level analysis of persons living with HIV in the southern United States

ABSTRACT

This study uses county-level surveillance data to systematically analyze geographic variation and clustering of persons living with diagnosed HIV (PLWH) in the southern United States in 2011. Clusters corresponding to large metropolitan areas – including Miami, Atlanta, and Baltimore – had HIV prevalence rates higher (p < .001) than the regional rate. Regression analysis within the counties included in these clusters determined that race was a significant indicator for PLWH. These results provide a general picture of the distribution of PLWH in the southern United States at the county level and provide insights for identifying local geographic areas with a high number of PLWH, as well as subpopulations that may have an increased risk of infection.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV
• race/ethnicity
• clusters
• socioeconomic status
• American South

Acknowledgements

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The findings and conclusions in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This material was based upon work partially supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant DMS-1127914 to the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute.