JPSIM Journal of Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine J Pak Soc Intern Med 2709-8729 2710-0804 Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine 10.70302/jpsim.v6i2.2528 jpsim.v6i2.2528 Original Research Socio-Demographic and Behavioral Factors in Patients with Delayed Diagnosis of Human Immunodeficiency Virus: A Cross-Sectional Study Naim Fahad fahadnaim42461@import.invalid * Naeem Awais Shah Fahim Islam Umair-ul- Adnan Sohail Hamid Muhammad Khyber Teaching Hospital/ Khyber Medical University Peshawar Khyber Medical University - Institute of Medical Sciences, Kohat *Correspondence: Fahad Naim (fahadnaim42461@import.invalid) 05 06 2025 2025 6 2 146 152 14 08 2024 25 01 2025 26 04 2025 Copyright © 2025 The Author(s) 2025 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective

To find socio-demographic characteristics and behavioral factors of patients presenting in the late stage of HIV infection

 Methodology

This descriptive retrospective, cross sectional study was conducted at District Headquarter (DHQ) Teaching Hospital, Kohat Development Authority (KDA), Kohat from April 2020 to September 2020. Socio-demographic data was collected from patients record registered at HIV care center Kohat from either gender having age greater than 15 years with CD4 count at the time of diagnosis less than 350/mm3, or patient presenting with an AIDS defining illness on a pre-designed form. Descriptive statistics were applied to find characteristics of patients with late HIV diagnosis.

 Results

A total of 152 patients had a CD4 count less than 350/mm3 at the time of diagnosis and registration at the HIV care center DHQ Teaching hospital. There were 87 (57.2%) males and 53 (34.9%) females. Majority of patients belonged to the age group of 31-45 years (40.8%), were unemployed (59.2%), married (63.2%) and were from area of Bannu (19.1%). A significant number of patients had a history of travelling abroad and were using smokeless tobacco while majority of patients didn’t know about HIV infection and never visited health care worker in last year before registration at HIV Care Center Kohat.

 Conclusion

Delayed diagnosis of HIV is common in male, unemployed patients, with a history of travelling abroad and married patients with majority of patients having no knowledge about HIV infection. Public health authorities shall implement new methods of expanding the realm of diagnostic testing as well as targeting those populations at a higher risk i.e., unemployed, substance abuse history, uneducated and having history of travel abroad, will help in early HIV diagnosis, avoiding AIDS defining conditions and mortality associated with HIV virus infection.

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