The Effect of Late Reporting and Diagnosis on Disproportionate HIV/AIDS Mortality in African American Women

HIV/AIDS is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity in African American women in the United States despite the advances in medical treatment using highly active antiretroviral therapy. The death rate from HIV/AIDS for African American women exceeds that of the general United States population. Many researchers have studied late diagnosis and late reporting for HIV/AIDS; however, none have specifically researched the effect these variables may have on HIV/AIDS mortality in heterosexual African American women. This research investigated the extent to which late reporting/late diagnosis, as measured by confirmed positive HIV status, impacts HIV/AIDS mortality in heterosexual African American women aged 25-44 compared to their European American counterparts in the United States. Guided by the critical period hypothesis, which looks at the timing of an exposure to a disease such as HIV/AIDS, secondary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's AIDS Public Information Data Set were analyzed using simple logistic regression analysis and the Kruskal-Wallis test. The results of the logistic regression analyses showed that late reporting (collectively) has an effect on HIV/AIDS mortality. The Kruskal-Wallis results showed that African American women experience late reporting more than their European American counterparts. One social change implication of this research is the potential to decrease the numbers of deaths from HIV/AIDS in African American women by timely reporting of cases to the CDC, improving their lives and the lives of their families and communities.