Factors contributing to dropping out from and returning to HIV treatment in an inner city primary care HIV clinic in the United States.

Although advances in pharmacotherapy have enabled people living with HIV/AIDS to live longer, fuller lives, some leave medical care, resulting in sub-optimal treatment and increased health risk to themselves and others. Forty-one patients who dropped out of an urban, publically funded primary care HIV clinic were contacted and encouraged by outreach staff to return. Participants were interviewed within two weeks of returning, and themes associated with dropping out and returning were elicited and content analyzed.