Multiple Micronutrient Supplementation Effect on Vital Metabolic parameters of Stable HIV Patients on Long term Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy; A Randomized Crossover Trial

Abstract

The effective and widespread use of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) has resulted in people with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection now living longer especially in resource limited regions with non AIDS defining diseases becoming a major cause of illness and management concern in patients on long term HAART. To determine the effect of multiple micronutrient supplementation on the vital metabolic parameters of clinically stable HIV patients on long term HAART. A randomized crossover intervention trial was used to determine the effect of a 12 week daily consumption of multiple micronutrient supplements on 50 clinically stable HIV infected clients receiving treatment from the Imo State University Teaching Hospital. The participants were purposively selected based on certain inclusion criteria and were randomized into two groups to receive the supplement at different periods after a washout period. The measurements of the levels of the metabolic parameters were taken at baseline, 12, 20 and 32 weeks. The mean age of the participants studied was 43.8±10.8 years with an average duration on HAART of 3.2±1.5 years. At baseline, 55.3% of the participants were severely immunodeficient, 51.1% were either overweight or obese, 45% were hypertensive and 57.4%, 55.3%, 80.9% and 68.1% respectively had high serum urea, albumin and liver enzymes. The intervention result, revealed that there was no statistically significant difference in the levels of the vital metabolic parameters with micronutrient supplementation compared to no supplementation. Micronutrient supplementation in HIV patients on long term HAART appear not to have any significant effect on the vital metabolic parameters. K e y w o r d sMicronutrient Supplementation, Vital metabolic parameters, HIV patients, HAART.