Dietary intake in HIV-positive persons with and without malabsorption

Area of Science:

• Infectious Diseases
• Nutritional Science
• Gastroenterology

Background:

• Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection can impact nutritional status.
• Malabsorption and altered dietary intake are potential complications in individuals with HIV.
• Understanding these relationships is crucial for managing patient health.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between malabsorption, diarrhea, dietary intake, and body composition in outpatient HIV-infected individuals.
• To determine if malabsorption affects nutritional outcomes in this population.
• To assess the quality of dietary intake among individuals with and without malabsorption.

Main Methods:

• Review of an outpatient cohort of individuals with HIV infection.
• Assessment of malabsorption, diarrhea, dietary intake, and body composition parameters (e.g., body weight, lean body mass, hemoglobin, albumin, BMI).
• Statistical analysis to determine associations between variables.

Main Results:

• Twenty-three percent of the HIV-infected participants exhibited malabsorption.
• Malabsorption was not significantly associated with the presence of current or chronic diarrhea.
• Despite malabsorption, the cohort showed no adverse nutritional outcomes regarding body weight, lean body mass, hemoglobin, or albumin.
• Dietary intake for both groups (with and without malabsorption) failed to meet the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
• Median intake was high in total and saturated fat and low in fiber and key micronutrients.

Conclusions:

• Malabsorption in this outpatient HIV cohort did not lead to negative nutritional consequences in terms of body composition.
• Dietary patterns in this HIV-infected population require improvement to align with national guidelines.
• Further research may explore targeted nutritional interventions for HIV patients with malabsorption.