PLoS ONE (Jan 2021)

Alcohol consumption and neurocognitive deficits in people with well-treated HIV in Switzerland.

  • Katharine E A Darling,
  • Isabella Locatelli,
  • Nadia Benghalem,
  • Isaure Nadin,
  • Alexandra Calmy,
  • Klemens Gutbrod,
  • Christoph Hauser,
  • Peter Brugger,
  • Barbara Hasse,
  • Helen Kovari,
  • Ursi Kunze,
  • Marcel Stoeckle,
  • Christophe Fux,
  • Stefania Rossi,
  • Caroline Di Benedetto,
  • Severin Früh,
  • Patrick Schmid,
  • Philip E Tarr,
  • Jean-Bernard Daeppen,
  • Renaud Du Pasquier,
  • Matthias Cavassini,
  • NAMACO Study Group, Swiss HIV Cohort Study

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246579
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16, no. 3
p. e0246579

Abstract

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BackgroundHazardous alcohol consumption and HIV infection increase the risk of neurocognitive impairment (NCI). We examined the association between alcohol consumption and specific neurocognitive domain function in people with HIV (PWH) taking modern antiretroviral therapy.MethodsThe Neurocognitive Assessment in the Metabolic and Aging Cohort (NAMACO) study is a prospective, longitudinal, multicentre and multilingual (French, German and Italian) study of patients aged ≥45 years old enrolled in the Swiss HIV Cohort Study (SHCS). Baseline data from 981 study participants were examined. Five neurocognitive domains were evaluated: motor skills, speed of information processing, attention/working memory, executive function and verbal episodic memory. NCI was examined as binary (presence/absence) and continuous (mean z-score) outcomes against Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test for Consumption (AUDIT-C) scores using logistic and linear regression models, respectively.ResultsMost participants (96.2%) had undetectable viral loads and 64% were aged >50 years old. Hazardous alcohol consumption was observed in 49.4% of participants and binge drinking in 4.2%. While alcohol consumption frequency and quantity were not associated with NCI, the practice of binge drinking was significantly associated with impaired motor skills and overall neurocognitive function in both binary (odds ratio, OR ≥2.0, P ConclusionsIn this cohort of PWH with well-controlled HIV infection, NCI was associated with the practice of binge drinking rather than alcohol consumption frequency or quantity. Longitudinal analysis of alcohol consumption and NCI in this population is currently underway.