Among people with HIV, mood disorders are associated with a higher risk of noncommunicable disease, particularly metabolic syndrome, Infectious Disease Advisor reports.

As described in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, Jessica L. Castilho, MD, MPH, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and colleagues studied 4,140 adults with HIV who attended the Vanderbilt University HIV clinic between 1998 and 2015 and had at least one year of follow-up data.

 

The cohort members were assessed for cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, liver disease, non-AIDS-defining cancers, dementia and metabolic syndrome (defined as having any three of high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes and high blood lipids).

 

Nine hundred nine-nine (24%) of the cohort members had a documented mood disorder diagnosis during their first year receiving care from the clinic, including 649 (65%) who had depression and 350 (35%) who had bipolar affective disorder.

 

Fifty-one percent of the cohort members had one noncommunicable health condition at the study’s outset. During the follow-up period, there were 2,588 new diagnoses of noncommunicable health conditions.

 

Having a mood disorder was associated with a 1.29-fold increased likelihood of being diagnosed with a new health condition, a 1.04-fold to 1.42-fold increased likelihood of being diagnosed with multiple health conditions and a 1.29-fold increased likelihood of being diagnosed with metabolic syndrome.

 

The most common new health condition diagnosis was metabolic syndrome.

 

After adjusting the data to account for various differences among the study members, the researchers found that factors associated with an increased risk of death among those with multiple health conditions included older age (1.65-fold increased risk), female sex (1.42-fold increased risk) and higher viral load (1.21-fold increased risk per log10, or power of 10, increase in viral load). Ever reporting alcohol use was associated with a 42% lower risk of death, and for every 100 higher CD4 count, there was a 15% decreased risk of death.

The study authors concluded that “focused prevention and treatment” of noncommunicable disease among people with HIV may reduce the burden of having multiple health conditions.

To read the Infectious Disease Advisor article, click here.

To read the study abstract, click here.