Impact of vital status investigation procedures on estimates of survival in cohorts of HIV-infected patients from Sub-Saharan Africa.

In HIV cohorts in sub-Saharan Africa, documenting vital status of patients lost to follow-up is a major challenge. The effect of specific vital status investigation procedures (VSIPs) on the number of known deaths has never been shown. We assessed the effects of VSIP on survival estimates in a 4-year prospective cohort study in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.