Factors related to HIV-associated lipodystrophy among patients on antiretroviral therapy

Abstract

To describe the distribution and related risk factors of lipodystrophy (LD)among AIDS patients treated with antiretroviral drugs. A cross-sectional study was performed on 261 AIDS patients treated with antiretroviral drugs. All the subjects were followed in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention of two counties in northern Anhui province from May 25 to 30, 2012. Data related to demography, physical examination, history of antiretroviral treatment, HIV plasma viral load, and CD4 + T cell count were collected. Clinical examination was based on an assessment of changes in face, legs, arms, buttocks(peripheral sites), back, chest, neck or abdomen or change in waist size (central sites)as quoted by the clinicians. LD was observed in 147 (56.3%) patients. The differences of age , gender, quality of sleep, weight and time of treatment between LD and non-lipodystrophy (NLD)groups were statistically significant (P < 0.05). Results from the Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the risk of women suffering from LD was 1.894 times of thd males (95%CI:1.075-3.338). The risk of those with LD showed an 1.448-fold increase regarding the time of treatment for each additional year (95%CI:1.267-1.654). Patients with poor quality of sleep were prone to LD with 11.901 times more than those with good quality of sleep (95%CI:2.701-52.441). LD was commonly observed in AIDS patients who were under antiretroviral therapy. Gender, tine of treatment and the quality of sleep appeared the main factors related to the results of observation.