Weight loss, wasting, and survival in HIV-positive patients: current strategies

Wasting syndrome has been a common HIV-related condition reported in the United States. Three analyses from the Tufts Nutrition for Healthy Living study shed new light on the syndrome. Analysis of Cox proportional hazards models showed that losses in weight, fat-free mass, body cell mass, and fat mass, both from baseline weight and from weight at previous follow-up, were all significant indicators of mortality in patients with the HIV wasting syndrome. In the second analysis, the prevalence of 5% weight loss from the previous visit was shown to be 35% greater in the late HAART era, from 1998 to 2003, than in the early HAART era of 1995 to 1997 (P < .02). This corresponds with earlier observations that the diagnosis of HIV wasting had been increasing during the decade of the 1990s. In the third analysis, the researchers found that body weight, fat-free mass, and body mass index improved in patients receiving nutritional intervention compared with patients receiving placebo.