Abstract
We evaluated associations between levels of alcohol use and HIV care continuum components using national Veterans Aging Cohort Study data for all patients with HIV and AUDIT-C screening (2/1/2008–9/30/2014). Poisson regression models evaluated associations between alcohol use levels (non-drinking, low-, medium-, high-, and very high-level drinking) and: (1) engagement with care (documented CD4 cells/µl or viral load copies/ml labs), (2) ART treatment (≥ 1 prescription), and (3) viral suppression (HIV RNA < 500 copies/ml) within one year. Among 33,224 patients, alcohol use level was inversely associated with all care continuum outcomes (all p < 0.001). Adjusted prevalence of care engagement ranged from 77.8% (95% CI 77.1–78.4%) for non-drinking to 69.1% (66.6–71.6%) for high-level drinking. The corresponding range for ART treatment was 74.0% (73.3–74.7%) to 60.1% (57.3–62.9%) and for viral suppression was 57.3% (56.5–58.1%) to 38.3% (35.6–41.1%). Greater alcohol use is associated with suboptimal HIV treatment across the HIV care continuum.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1-12 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | AIDS and Behavior |
DOIs | |
State | Accepted/In press - Jul 9 2018 |
Keywords
- Alcohol
- Antiretroviral therapy
- Care continuum
- HIV
- Treatment cascade
- Viral suppression
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
- Infectious Diseases