HIV-positive patients tend to receive less cardiovascular care

People living with HIV (PLWH) are less likely to receive preventive cardiovascular (CV) care than non-HIV-infected patients, suggest the results of a study conducted in the same outpatient clinic.

A team of researchers conducted this retrospective study to determine the differences in preventive CV offered to patients with and without HIV infection in one outpatient clinic. They enrolled 150 consecutive patients with at least four appointments in 2 years and had no history of CV events.

Finally, a randomly selected sample of non-HIV-infected patients receiving primary care services in the same clinic served as controls and were enrolled using the same eligibility criteria.

More patients in the HIV-negative vs the HIV-positive group met the statin criteria (70 percent vs 24.67 percent; p<0.0001) and received such therapy (89.52 percent vs 54.05 percent; p<0.0001). Likewise, more HIV-negative patients met the aspirin criteria (10.67 percent vs 8.16 percent; p=0.46) and received the said drug (50 percent vs 33.3 percent; p=0.33).

More current smokers were seen among PLWH (38 percent vs 11.33 percent; p<0.0001), and slightly more patients in the HIV-positive group received smoking cessation counseling (82.46 percent vs 76.47 percent; p=0.58).

“Increased efforts are needed to ensure PLWH are receiving primary preventive CV care they need,” the researchers said.

“PLWH are at an increased risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease due to normal disease processes, antiretroviral medication adverse effects, and age-related comorbid conditions,” they noted.