P181 Nutrition is Still Recurrently Disregarded as a Constituent of HIV/AIDS Management

Abstract

Background The impact of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in Africa is still a major concern to the global community of public health professionals. Previous focus has been primarily on Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) and adherence, neglecting other key components of survival needed by people living with HIV (PLWHA). Research evidence has shown that HAART without nutrition education interventions cannot solely reduce HIV related morbidity and mortality rates. Objective The objective of this review is to provide insights on the role of nutrition as parts of key component in HIV and AIDS disease management. Study Design, Settings, and Participants Critical appraisal approach was used to identify review of previous nutrition intervention research for PLWHA published between January 2008 and December 31, 2018. Measurable Outcome/Analysis The articles were identified through PubMed, EBSCOhost platform (CINAHL, Medline, and Nursing Academic Edition), Cochrane Library and Google scholar as well as by perusing the reference list of selected articles. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were set within the scope of this review. Results The results of this review showed that there is lack of information on the relationship between HIV, HIV risk factors and nutrition and the role of nutrition in HIV management. This review also established that, there is an urgent need to provide scientific information on the current state of HIV and nutrition research. Some of the realistic approaches to reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS such as optimization of nutritional status of the PLWHA and regular physical activities were revealed. The needs for PLWHA to consume a varied diet in order to prevent opportunistic infections and nutrition deficiencies were also identified. Conclusion The review confirmed needs for further research on the development, implementation and evaluation of programme activities related to nutrition, quality of life (QoL) and physical activities of PLWHA. Funding National Research Foundation.