Causal effect of incarceration history on HIV susceptibility among people who inject drugs: an individual-level meta-analysis

Abstract

The objective of this master’s thesis is to describe the causal effect of ever being imprisoned on the probability of having human immunodeficiency virus among people who inject drugs. Here, we meta-analyse individual-level patient data that has been collected throughout Europe. Firstly, we provide an overview of the individual patient data and the process of merging the data sets into a complete analysis data set. Subsequently, we provide an overview of the bias reduction and causal inference and modelling methods such as propensity score matching and generalised linear mixed model. Finally, the thesis focuses on applying these practices on the merged data set. As a result, the thesis confirms the existence of a risk-increasing effect of ever imprisonment to the probability of having human immunodeficiency virus.