Association of Gastrointestinal Manifestations with Socio-demographic, Lifestyle & Clinical Factors in HIV/AIDS Patients

Abstract

Background: Gastrointestinal abnormalities in people with HIV/AIDS have been reported since the advent of AIDS. This study aimed to analyze the gastrointestinal manifestations in HIV/AIDS patients in terms of sociodemographic, lifestyle, and clinical characteristics with the association of GI manifestations. Material & Methods: This observational cross-sectional analytical study was conducted at the ART corner and Department of Gastroenterology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Shahbag, Dhaka among adult HIV-infected or AIDS patients aged more than 18 years. A total of 122 patients were taken as per inclusion criteria. The study took place from March 2018 to February 2019. Continuous variables were reported as the mean ± standard deviation. The correlation of several GI symptoms with CD4 count was done by the Spearman rank test. Sociodemographic variables (gender, age, income, and education level), lifestyle variables (smoking status, risk consumption of alcohol, and physical activity level), and clinical variables (antiretroviral therapy – duration and class, duration of HIV infection) were assessed through a pre-tested and standardized questionnaire. The chi-square test was used to test the statistical significance of associations, considering a p-value ≤0.05 as statistically significant. All of the data were analyzed and calculated using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 20.0) and Microsoft Excel 2016. Results: Among the patients, male preponderance was seen with the frequency of 66% (31) and 61.3% (46) with and without GI symptoms respectively. Patients aged 40-49 years old were more frequent with (31.9%) and without (25.3%) GI symptoms. The patients of primary level of education had GI symptoms and had no GI symptoms were 61.7% and 45.3% respectively of the total. Statistically significant (p=0.03) indicating that low CD4+ cell count (≤ 350 cells/mm3) can be considered as an associated risk factor for the occurrence of GI manifestations in HIV infected patients. There was less statistically significant difference in other clinical characteristics between patients with current GI manifestations and without GI manifestations. Here, the statistically significant p-value ≤0.05 is considered. Conclusion: This study concluded that, smoking and low CD4 count (<350cell/mm3) were found significantly associated with the occurrence of presenting GI symptoms. Other sociodemographic, lifestyle, and clinical factors were not significantly associated with the occurrence of GI manifestations.