Healthcare utilization patterns and suicide death for people living with HIV in British Columbia, Canada, from 1998-2020.

People living with HIV (PLWH) are disproportionately represented in suicide ideation and mortality. For my thesis, I will examine the patterns of healthcare utilization prior to death for: PLWH who died by suicide versus those who die of other causes. PLWH will be matched by age and sex with controls who are not living with HIV, in the Comparative Outcomes and Service Utilization Trends study. Participants included will have a recorded death date and a follow-up encounter at least 90-days before their death. Healthcare utilization codes identified within British Columbia (BC's) administrative datasets will be analyzed using the Drug Treatment Program data housed at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS for all people living with HIV in BC who are in care. Unadjusted and adjusted logistic and linear regression models will be used for analyses. I hypothesize that PLWH who died by suicide will interact with the healthcare system less prior to death when compared to PLWH who died of other causes and that that for those who died by suicide, PLWH will interact with the healthcare system less than people not living with HIV. I anticipate that the findings from this study could highlight missed opportunities for PLWH to engage in care, and lead to positive and healthy initiatives in efforts to minimize the rate of people choosing to take their own lives in the province and nationally.