Objective   To investigate survival time and its influencing factors among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS patients who received highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in Hubei province.

  Methods   A retrospective cohort study was carried out among HIV/AIDS patients aged 15 years and older who received HAART from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2015 in Hubei province. Life table was adopted to calculate survival rate, mortality rate, and cumulative survival rate. Log-rank test was used to compare differences in survival time among the patients of various age groups. Univariate analysis and Cox proportional hazard model were utilized to evaluate influencing factors of survival time among the patients.

  Results   Among a total of 10 065 patients (7 449 74.01 % males, 2 616 25.99 % females) retrospectively followed-up during the 10-year period, 1 048 (10.41 %) died. Of the died cases, 646 (61.64 %) died from HIV/AIDS related diseases; 471 (72.91 %) died within the first 6 months of the treatment and 497 (76.93 %) died in the first year of treatment. For all the patients followed-up, the cumulative survival rate was 95.03 % for the first year and was 86.97 % by the end of follow-up. The patients engaged in home service industry were at a higher risk of death (hazard risk HR = 1.33, 95 % confidence interval 95 % CI: 1.09 – 1.62); the patients with the education of high school/secondary school were at a higher risk of death (HR = 3.26, 95 % CI: 1.72 – 6.18) compared to those with junior high school education or lower. Higher risks of death after receiving HAART were observed among the patients with more types of opportunistic infection at the baseline checkup (HR = 0.73, 95 % CI: 0.58 – 0.93 for having three or more types of opportunistic infection), the patients categorized as a higher clinical stage according to the criterion of World Health Organization (WHO) (HR = 0.59, 95 % CI = 0.49 – 0.70), having a CD4⁺T lymphocyte count of ≥ 351/μL at the baseline checkup (HR = 5.83, 95 % CI = 1.84 – 18.54), and aged ≥ 50 years when beginning HAART (HR = 0.70, 95 % CI = 0.58 – 0.85).

  Conclusion   The cumulative survival rate is relatively high and the survival is correlated positively with the number of opportunistic infection at baseline checkup, WHO clinical stage, and age of the patients and reverse with CD4⁺T lymphocyte count at baseline checkup among HAART treated HIV/AIDS patients in Hubei province during the period from 2006 to 2015.