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“The probability of being employed in people with HIV shows significant differences by gender, according to the route of transmission of the disease, health status and educational level,” he told SINC Juan Oliva, lead study author and researcher UCLM.

This analysis, whose findings were published last year in the journal Health Economics, used to determine the probability that an infected person has or does not work in Spain.

“Gender is a statistically significant variable to predict employment status. In this sense, women are 13.4% less likely than men to be employed, “said Oliva.

“The psychological factor is also a fundamental variable. People who need to receive counseling about the impact of knowing their disease has affected their chances of employment, “said the expert. According to the study, the probability decreases by 14% in people who require such treatment.

The results also suggest that individuals who were infected through injecting drug use (IDU) are significantly less likely to get a job that people who contracted the disease by other means.

Defense level of individuals is another significant variable. “The results indicate that a person with a high defense level is 25% more likely to be unemployed,” says the researcher. On the other hand, patients newly diagnosed with HIV (in the 12 months preceding the survey) had 11.2% more likely to work than patients who were diagnosed before.

The importance of surveys

The work is based on data from the Hospital for patients with HIV / AIDS that takes place periodically since 1996 and was provided by the Ministry of Health and Social Policy in order to conduct this research. This survey includes since 2001 a question on the labor participation of people living with HIV.

“From that year until 2004 to collect data from 3376 individuals aged 16 years (minimum age to work in Spain) and 64 (the statutory retirement age is 65)”, explains the researcher.

“Policies to improve employment conditions and welfare of people with HIV should not be limited only to labor, not just the health sector. The long-term measures to support HIV-positive people should be cross and contemplate the dimensions of health, work and social life “, concludes Oliva.

According to the latest hospital survey, 48.3% of people living with HIV in Spain were employed in 2009.

The aim of this study, led by researcher Ines Herrero and developed with Immaculate Algarra, both the Department of Management of the UPO, focused on demonstrating whether the change of university education system delivers real benefits.

The results reveal an improvement in the efficiency of freshmen added to the pilot of Pablo de Olavide in relation to previous years, although the new system based on ECTS makes no comparison with the previous revolution.

According to Smith, “but the benefits are not nearly as may seem, the data are encouraging in the sense that students can make better use of their training.”

In reaching this conclusion, the research has used formal techniques of efficiency, in particular the researchers have used a modification of a technique known as Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA, its acronym Anglo), with which it has assessed the performance of students in first year depending on your input note in college, and results in different subjects studied.

“We have considered only students new entry in the UPO, as monitoring becomes very difficult in later years, when repeated courses. This makes the student has previous knowledge of it, which can distort the data, “said Ines Herrero.

The research results also show that the dispersion of students decreases dramatically with the new educational system. In this way, students who enter with a lower level with a clear improvement over previous years, while those whose level is best kept at high levels. For researchers, this is partly due to the continuously monitored throughout the course.

“The European Higher Education Area provides a closer tracking of students, so that it looks more forced to study during the quarter, making year-end have a better understanding of the material that has been assimilated over the course that if you study all at once in a few days before the test, “said Smith.