Abstract:
There is a division of opinion on the effect of volume of patients and the quality and
outcome of HIV treatment services in Nigeria. While there are many who believe that
quality of treatment will decline with increasing volume others argue that quality and
outcome will actually improve with increasing volume of clients. This disagreement
has resulted in conflicting recommendations to govemment regarding the setting of
limits for the recruitment of clients for Antiretroviral Therapy (ART)
Objectives
To establish the association between volume of patients and the outcome of HIV
treatment services.
Methodology
a. Research design
This is a comparative cross-sectional study of the outcome of HIV treatment in high
and low volume HIV treatment centres. Information was gathered from hospital
records of patients recruited for ART during the specified period of the study. The
outcome indicators for this study are number of deaths, number of loss-to-follow-up
and number of missed appointment recorded in the period.
b. Study population
This consists of all patients enrolled for ART at the selected health facilities within
the specified period of the study. The health facilities used for this study were
selected in a manner that is representative of the six geopolitical zones of the country.
