Impact of Abstinence and of Reducing Illicit Drug Use Without Abstinence on Human Immunodeficiency Virus Viral Load.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Substance use is common among people living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLWH) and a barrier to achieving viral suppression. Among PLWH who report illicit drug use, we evaluated associations between HIV viral load (VL) and reduced use of illicit opioids, methamphetamine/crystal, cocaine/crack, and marijuana, regardless of whether or not abstinence was achieved.

Methods

This was a longitudinal cohort study of PLWH from 7 HIV clinics or 4 clinical studies. We used joint longitudinal and survival models to examine the impact of decreasing drug use and of abstinence for each drug on viral suppression. We repeated analyses using linear mixed models to examine associations between change in frequency of drug use and VL.

Results

The number of PLWH who were u

SUBMITTER: Nance RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7319266 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature