Relationship of Smoking with the CD4+ T cell count and Viral Load in Patients with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus in the HIV health care center at the Hospital Regional Universitario José María Cabral y Báez in the Dominican Republic: a Cross-sectional Descriptive Study

Association between smoking and lack of HIV virological suppression in a cross-sectional study of persons with HIV on antiretroviral therapy in Uganda

“…However, studies that have examined the association of smoking with viral suppression have reported mixed findings. Several studies have found evidence that smoking is associated with lack of virological suppression in PLWH [11][12][13][14][15][16], while other studies have shown no association [17] or an inverse association [10]. Since most of these studies were conducted in high income countries [10,12,14,15,17], further research on the association between smoking and lack of virological suppression within Sub-Saharan Africa and low-income countries is needed.…”

“…Because smoking and alcohol use commonly co-occur, studies of the association between smoking and viral suppression need to control for alcohol use. Of the studies that examined whether there was an association between smoking and viral suppression [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17], three controlled for alcohol use [11,13,17], and of those, only one found a significant association between smoking and viral suppression [13]. To best design interventions to improve HIV outcomes, there is a need to better understand whether smoking impacts HIV viral suppression in patients who receive ART, independent of alcohol use.…”

“…However, the literature regarding the association of smoking with CD4 cell count among PLWH on ART has mixed findings. Some studies have linked smoking with poorer CD4 cell count recovery over time after ART initiation [10][11][12], while other literature found no association [15]. Therefore, there is a need to better understand whether smoking impacts CD4 cell count in PLWH who receive ART.…”