Money versus biology in HIV treatment effectiveness—guess which wins?
Can being poor affect the way you respond to HIV treatment? Yes, say researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health. In a recent study, they determined that a person’s socioeconomic position could influence the effectiveness of initial therapy—suggesting that the success of antiretroviral medication isn’t a strictly biological matter.
“In this study, we looked at a social factor to see if it would be a predictor [of] whether or not a patient is going to respond to treatment,” says Dr. Linda Marc, lead author of the study and now a lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health. “Poorer people have more daily hassles—for example, they might not have 50 cents to take the bus—[and] stress is known to influence the immune system.”
Since one or some combination of three traits—income, education and occupation—is generally used to define socioeconomic status, Marc’s group chose to examine the relationship between a person’s educational background and the success of antiretroviral therapy. They examined HIV-positive people who’d never taken meds before; after starting treatment, those with lower education levels reached initial regimen failure sooner than study participants who had college or graduate degrees. Current IV-drug-using subjects, as well as black participants—two groups who statistically may have lower levels of schooling—were also more likely to experience first-regimen failure than others.
Doctors and medical experts need to expand traditional biology-based research to take a closer look at the social factors affecting their patients, recommends Marc, who adds that “the findings support the development of health promotion programs focusing on psychological and behavioral aspects associated with HIV treatments.” Marc also says pharmaceutical companies should consider putting money toward these research areas—and soon.
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comments 1 - 3 (of 3 total)
Jerry, , 2007-12-05 19:31:38
Interesting, so I read article in Journal Psychosomatic Research, Aug 2007. 96% of patients took cocktails as prescribed, yet, there was still poorer treatment response in the lower educated groups. In addition, the lower educated who had HIGH confidence in the effectiveness of treatments and their ability to take medications, responded better than under-educated without these traits. Status-related stress clearly impacted immune functioning. Thus, programs can be designed to increase CD4.
Nannette Rivera, NYC, 2007-11-30 10:30:46
I'm 37 year old and I became HIV+ in 1982, I was 12. That's the time when it was just Aids not HIV and there was no cure or treatment. I didn't start treatment unto I got pregnant with my daughter at 24 years old. After I start it treatment and my daughter was born I couln't stop treatment because every time I try I got sick but before I start it treatment I never got sick. I do think that a state of mind got something to do with your health wether you are HIV or not.
A Study??, , 2007-11-29 20:01:58
That's a given! you don't need a study to tell me my
health is suffering due to my financial situation.
I'm so stressed I don't eat or sleep most days, along with the depression which adds to it!
