AbstractsLaw & Legal Studies

In this study, I examined data from a large cohort of HIV infected individuals of both genders from a small township of Bangwe in Malawi to demonstrate the influence of general weight loss, a reported AIDS wasting syndrome (AWS), which is the involuntary weight loss of 10\% of baseline body weight plus either chronic diarrhea or chronic weakness and documented fever in the absence of a concurrent illness or condition other than HIV infection that would explain the findings and the influence of body mass index (BMI) on survival. The Bangwe home based care project is jointly run by the Salvation Army church and the College of Medicine at the University of Malawi and aims at providing and evaluating a comprehensive program of care and support to people living with AIDS in the Bangwe community. Patients are aged between 15 and 50 years with chronic disease of more than a month or are known AIDS patients outside this age range and in need of home based care. To evaluate the effectiveness of home based care programs and survival patterns of AIDS patients based on weight loss, AIDS wasting syndrome and body mass index, I used survival and event history analysis methods from the nonparametric procedures, semi-parametric (Cox regression) to parametric methods, which included the Weibull and the compound Poisson frailty model.