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Rosemary Dray-Spira, MD, PhD, Alice Gueguen, PhD, Jean-François Ravaud, MD, PhD and France Lert, PhD

Rosemary Dray-Spira, Alice Gueguen, and France Lert are with Institut National de la Santé et la Recerche Médicale (INSERM), Unit 687, Saint-Maurice, France, and with the University Paris XI, Institut Fédératif de Recherche (IFR) 69, Villejuif, France. Jean-François Ravaud is with Institut National de la Santé et la Reserche Médicale (INSERM), Unit 750, and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Unité Mixte de Recherche 8169, Villejuif.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Rosemary Dray-Spira, INSERM U687, Hôpital National de Saint-Maurice, 14 rue du Val d’Osne, 94415 Saint-Maurice Cedex, France (e-mail: rosemary.dray-spira{at}st-maurice.inserm.fr).

Objectives. We sought to measure the difference in employment rates between HIV-seropositive and HIV-seronegative persons and to establish whether this difference varied according to the HIV-infected persons’ socioeconomic position as defined by education level.

Methods. We used data from the VESPA (VIH: Enquête Sur les Personnes Atteintes) study, a large cross-sectional survey conducted among a nationally representative sample of 2932 HIV-infected patients in France. Age-, gender-, nationality-, and education-standardized employment rates were estimated with the French general population as the reference. The differences in employment rates with the general population were computed overall and according to education level.

Results. Compared with that of the general population, the overall employment rate was 25% lower (95% confidence interval [CI]=16%, 32%) among HIV-infected patients diagnosed before 1994 and 9% lower (95% CI = 5%, 16%) among HIV-infected patients diagnosed from 1994 onward. The difference in employment rates with the general population was significantly higher among patients with a low education level. The employment rate of highly educated HIV-infected patients diagnosed from 1994 onward did not differ from that of the general population.

Conclusions. HIV infection was associated with decreased workforce participation among those with a low education level but not among highly educated individuals.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R Dray-Spira, A Gueguen, F Lert, and the VESPA Study Group* Disease severity, self-reported experience of workplace discrimination and employment loss during the course of chronic HIV disease: differences according to gender and education Occup. Environ. Med., February 1, 2008; 65(2): 112 - 119. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]