Cardiovascular risk factors among patients with human immunodeficiency viral infection at a tertiary hospital in Ghana: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction the provision of antiretroviral treatment (ART) to people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) has improved their life expectancy significantly. Conversely, this has been associated with an elevated risk of cardiovascular diseases. Yet, research to improve understanding of cardiovascular risk factors among PLHIV remains limited. This study examines the prevalence and correlates of cardiovascular risk factors among PLHIV at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) in Accra, Ghana. Methods a cross-sectional study was conducted at the KBTH, Accra, Ghana. Patients were recruited from the adult HIV outpatient clinic at the infectious disease unit, KBTH. The sample comprised 525 PLHIV, aged 18 years and above. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and a multivariable binary logistic regression. Results among the patients, 9.7% (n=51) had hypertension and 15.6% (n=82) were reportedly patients with diabetes. With respect to the serum lipid profile, 24.8% (n=130) had hypertriglyceridemia, 49.1% (n=258) had hypercholesterolemia, 26.3% (138) had low high-density lipoprotein, and high low-density lipoprotein was found in 27.2% (n=143) of the cohort. The multivariable binary logistic regression results showed that being unemployed, underweight, being on ART, being male, having a higher level of education, and not having health insurance subscription significantly increased the odds of cardiovascular risk factors among the patients. Conclusion current findings buttress concern for elevated risk of cardiovascular diseases among PLHIV and calls for increased attention for comprehensive care that includes the prevention and management of cardiovascular diseases and its risk factors among this vulnerable group.

Hypertension and traditional risk factors for cardiovascular diseases among treatment naïve HIV- infected adults initiating antiretroviral therapy in Urban Tanzania

“…Despite the huge evidence of an association between ART and HTN in PLHIV, the prevalence of HTN in the current study is similar to or even higher than in the ART exposed [ 8 , 34 , 38 , 49 , 54 – 58 ]. This points out the role of other factors, apart from ART, such as chronic immune activation and HIV- related factors in the pathophysiology of HIV- associated HTN.…”

Prevalence and influences of diabetes and prediabetes among adults living with HIV in Africa: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…One study was published before 2010 [17], nine were published from 2011 to 2015 [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] and 5-10 studies were published yearly thereafter. The highest number of included studies were from South Africa (n = 18) [16, 18, 34-39, 24, 27-33], followed by Ethiopia (n = 8) [26,[40][41][42][43][44][45][46] and Tanzania (n = 7) [19,22,25,[47][48][49][50], with four studies each from Cameroon [19,[51][52][53], Ghana [21,[54][55][56], Kenya [17,[57][58][59], Malawi [60][61][62][63] and Uganda [64][65][66][67].…”

Women’s health concern in Jordan: knowledge, practice and barriers toward cervical cancer screening

“…Despite resource limitations, researchers highlight that the burden of CC can be reduced by early screening for detection and management (Curry et al , 2018). Indeed, longer survival among patients has been linked to early diagnosis (Wamburu et al , 2016). However, internationally, a high incidence of CC is reported in poor and developing countries such as Jordan where early detection still faces many hurdles (Asali et al , 2019; Al Rifai and Nakamura, 2015).…”