Antiretroviral therapy abandonment among adolescents and young people with HIV/AIDS during COVID-19: A case-control study.
Camila Moraes Garollo Piran, Alana Vitória Escritori Cargnin, Bianca Machado Cruz Shibukawa and 3 others
PMID 37341259WHAT IT FOUND
Older age and living far from the clinic raised the risk of stopping HIV treatment.
Surprisingly, using condoms sometimes and having opportunistic infections were linked to staying on treatment. These associations are not causes, and the study was small.
Key findings
01Each year older at the last consultation was associated with a higher chance of abandoning antiretroviral therapy.
02Participants who reported sometimes using condoms were less likely to abandon treatment than those who never used them.
03Having had an opportunistic infection was associated with a lower likelihood of treatment abandonment.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study used a small number of cases, with only 27 patients who abandoned treatment. Data came from medical records, which may be incomplete or inaccurate. The study was conducted at a single service in Brazil, so the results may not apply to other settings. The association between opportunistic infections and adherence is counter-intuitive and may reflect reverse causality, where patients who are already engaged in care are more likely to have their infections diagnosed.
Declared interests
The study was financed in part by CAPES, a Brazilian government funding agency. The authors declared no other conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the link between opportunistic infections and lower abandonment as evidence that getting sicker improves adherence. This is an observational association from a small sample, and it is likely that patients who are already engaged in care are more likely to have infections diagnosed and treated.