Evaluation of cardiovascular risk factors in people living with HIV in São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

Introduction: HIV infection as a chronic disease has emerged from treatment advances over the past three decades. From this perspective, the diseases associated with AIDS are not a main threat for patients who use Antiretroviral Therapy (ART). A new set of HIV associated complications have emerged resulting in comorbidities related to aging and ART exposure as cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study aimed to evaluate the cardiovascular risk factors in people living with HIV (PLWH) in Brazil.
 Methodology: This was a cross-sectional study carried out at all Specialized Care Services for people living with HIV in the Southeast of Brazil. A sociodemographic and clinical questionnaire was used and cardiovascular risk assessed through the Framingham Score. Data analysis was performed by Chi-square, Fisher’s exact test and logistic regression.
 Results: The majority were male, over 40 years old and they showed a mean age of 44 years. Current hypertension, diabetes, altered body mass index, presence of metabolic syndrome and altered abdominal circumference were also associated with cardiovascular risk. After regression analysis, male sex, older age, smoking, diabetes, hypertension and metabolic syndrome were related as predictive factors for a higher cardiovascular risk.
 Conclusions: The results demonstrate that combination of the prevention of modifiable risk factors with considerable changes in lifestyle are determining factors for success in the therapeutic of PLWH. High levels of motivation are essential for behavioral changes, and nurses are ideally position to provide safe care with nonpharmacological strategies for CVD risk reduction.

Factors Associated with Tobacco Smoking in HIV Infected Persons, Brazil: A Cross Sectional Survey

“…Interestingly, these authors show no association between stigma and sexual orientation, or number of years infected [47], corroborating our results. Another study done in the same Brazilian state as ours reported a 70.3% heterosexual and 24.1% homosexual proportion in a sample of people with HIV/AIDS [27]. Our sexual orientation data trended more toward reports of heterosexuality which did not allow us to pinpoint smoking differences by orientation.…”

“…However, our strengths include a high response rate (99.5%) to counter non-response bias. Furthermore, our demographic results, including smoking prevalence, match other studies with PLWH, lending validity through generalizability [27,51]. Lastly, research about the risks of smoking often relies on applying only one of two analysis strategies.…”

“…For example, one research team in Rio de Janeiro found 29.9% of PLWH smoked [25]; in Recife, researchers found a prevalence of 28.9% [26]; in São Paulo, 32.1% to 47.6% [27][28]; and on the higher end of the prevalence spectrum, in Brasilia 54.3% of PLWH smoke tobacco [29]. In none of the previous ve references, however, was there mention of second hand smoke (SHS) exposure.…”

Validação de livro eletrônico interativo para redução do risco cardiovascular em pessoas vivendo com HIV

“…Ademais, estudos têm mostrado que estes fatores de risco para DCV são mais frequentes nas PVHIV em TARV regular, evidenciando o viver com a infecção como um fator de risco específico para DCV (3,6) e que, somado aos fatores tradicionais, predispõem as PVHIV a um risco ainda maior para o desenvolvimento de doenças (6)(7) .…”

“…Desta forma, modificar os hábitos de vida, tal como o aumento da atividade física, a redução do peso e a educação sobre práticas alimentares saudáveis são fundamentais para mitigar os fatores de risco modificáveis para DCV em PVHIV (7)(8) . Tais mudanças podem ser alcançadas por meio da educação em saúde na qual busca aumentar o empoderamento das pessoas em relação ao seu cuidado em saúde (9) , bem como melhorar a alfabetização em saúde que tem papel de destaque na prevenção primária e secundária da DCV (10) .…”