HIV/AIDS, comorbidity, and alcohol: can we make a difference?

Abstract

Alcohol use is common among people infected with HIV and plays an important role in their health outcomes. Because alcohol use complicates HIV infection and contributes to comorbid diseases, it is important for researchers and practitioners to understand these interactions and to integrate alcohol treatment with medical management of long-term HIV infection and associated comorbidity. The Veterans Aging Cohort Study (VACS) is a large, multisite study of the effects of alcohol use on HIV outcomes in the broader context of aging. A multilevel strategy intervention trial is needed to address the many modifiable implications of alcohol consumption among those receiving treatment for HIV.

Figure

Conceptual model for aging with HIV infection. This figure illustrates the progression of disease among those in care who are aging with HIV infection from presenting health conditions through interacting disease processes to cumulative organ system injury, advanced clinical disease, and, eventually, death. The VACS Risk Index attempts to integrate and summarize the total disease process in order to better reflect risk of morbidity and mortality and to facilitate the identification and modification of risk.