BMC Infectious Diseases (Jun 2019)

Clusterization of co-morbidities and multi-morbidities among persons living with HIV: a cross-sectional study

  • Paolo Maggi,
  • Carmen R. Santoro,
  • Marco Nofri,
  • Elena Ricci,
  • Nicolò De Gennaro,
  • Chiara Bellacosa,
  • Elisabetta Schiaroli,
  • Giancarlo Orofino,
  • Barbara Menzaghi,
  • Antonio Di Biagio,
  • Nicola Squillace,
  • Daniela Francisci,
  • Francesca Vichi,
  • Chiara Molteni,
  • Paolo Bonfanti,
  • Giovanni Battista Gaeta,
  • Giuseppe Vittorio De Socio

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-019-4184-z
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 19, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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Abstract Background Among people living with HIV (PLWH), the prevalence of non-HIV related co-morbidities is increasing. Aim of the present study is to describe co-morbidity and multi-morbidity, their clustering mode and the potential disease-disease interactions in a cohort of Italian HIV patients. Methods Cross-sectional analysis conducted by the Coordinamento Italiano per lo Studio di Allergia e Infezioni da HIV (CISAI) on adult subjects attending HIV-outpatient facilities. Non-HIV co-morbidities included: cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, oncologic diseases, osteoporosis, probable case of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, psychiatric illness, kidney disease. Multi-morbidity was defined as the presence of two or more co-morbidities. Results One thousand and eighty-seven patients were enrolled in the study (mean age 47.9 ± 10.8). One hundred-ninety patients (17.5%) had no co-morbidity, whereas 285 (26.2%) had one condition and 612 (56.3%) were multi-morbid. The most recurrent associations were: 1) dyslipidemia + hypertension (237, 21.8%); 2) dyslipidemia + COPD (188, 17.3%); 3) COPD + HCV-Ab+ (141, 12.9%). Multi-morbidity was associated with older age, higher body mass index, current and former smoking, CDC stage C and longer ART duration. Conclusions More than 50% of PLHW were multi-morbid and about 30% had three or more concurrent comorbidities. The identification of common patterns of comorbidities address the combined risks of multiple drug and disease-disease interactions.

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