Travel for HIV care in England: a choice or a necessity?

Results In 2007, nearly 57000 adults with diagnosed HIV infection accessed HIV services in England; 42% lived in the most deprived areas. Overall, 81% of patients lived within 5 km of a service, and 8.7% used their closest HIV service. The median distance to the closest HIV service was 2.5 km [interquartile range (IQR) 1.5–4.2 km] and the median actual distance travelled was 4.8 km (IQR 2.5–9.7 km). A quarter of patients used a ‘non-local’ service. Patients living in the least deprived areas were twice as likely to use non-local services as those living in the most deprived areas [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 2.16; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.98–2.37]. Other predictors for accessing non-local services included living in an urban area (AOR 0.77; 95% CI 0.69–0.85) and being diagnosed more than 12 months (AOR 1.48; 95% CI 1.38–1.59).