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New HIV cases in Florida increase after introduction of Craigslist
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Recent data suggest the introduction of Craigslist may have resulted in 1,149 transmissions of HIV among Floridians over a 5-year period, costing an estimated $710 million in lifetime medical expenses.
These findings are to be published in Management Science, according to a press release.
Researchers examined data from roughly 12 million patients admitted to 223 Florida hospitals from 2002 to 2006 collected by the Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration. A change in the incidence rates of asymptomatic HIV carriers was observed in the first few months of the service’s entry into a new city or county, with results disaggregated and separately analyzed for sociodemographic areas such as race, gender and socioeconomic status as determined by receipt of Medicaid.
Using models to determine absolute and relative effect, the researchers observed an overall increase in hospital admission of asymptomatic HIV patients immediately after the introduction of Craigslist to a new market. While this effect was largest among African-Americans, the researchers wrote, a greater absolute effect also was observed among the non-Medicaid population. No difference in HIV accrual was observed among men and women.
This increase translated to 1,149 HIV patients admitted to Florida hospitals during the 5-year period who otherwise may not have contracted the infection, 62.9% of whom are African-American. At an average annual cost of $618,000 over a patient’s lifetime, health care costs would equal $6.896 million each year and $710 million overall.
“[The study] underscores the need for broader communication and dissemination of the risks posed by the type of online matching platforms studied here,” Ritu Agarwal, PhD, of the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland and director of the Center for Health Information and Decision Systems, said in the press release. “We need to better understand both the beneficial as well as the punitive effects of the Internet on individual and public health.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.