B.C. men with HIV live longer than women: study [Video]

Antiretroviral treatment has increased the life expectancy of people living with HIV in British Columbia but a new study shows it is significantly lower for women than men.

The BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS research paper, published in the peer-reviewed Lancet Public Health, points to an immediate need to address factors such as unemployment and unstable housing that adversely affect the health of women with HIV.

The provincewide expansion of antiretroviral treatment combined with the STOP HIV/AIDS program has increased the life expectancy for all, but epidemiologist Katherine Kooij, the paper’s lead author, says it’s “worrying” the improvement isn’t as strong among women.

She says the difference is suspected to be due to environmental or social structural factors such as barriers to accessing health care, unemployment, poverty, unstable housing, stigma and discrimination.