Significant Psychosocial Influence in Frail People Living with HIV Independent of Frailty Instrument Used

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) usage among people living with HIV (PLWH) has led to significant mortality declines and increasing lifespan. However, high incidence and early onset of aging-related conditions such as frailty, pose as a new threat to this population.

We aimed to characterize frailty by comparing health domains consisting of psychosocial, functional and physical deficits between frail PLWH and matched uninfected controls; identify associated risk factors and the impact on negative health outcomes including mortality risk score, quality of life, healthcare utilization, functional disability and history of falls among virally suppressed PLWH.

Cross-sectional study.

Infectious disease clinic in a tertiary institution.

Individuals aged >25 years, on ART >12 months, not pregnant and without acute illness; multi-ethnic, Asian.

Frailty instruments included Frailty phenotype (FP), FRAIL scale (FS) and Frailty index (FI). FI health deficits were categorized into health domains (psychosocial, functional and physical) and used as standard comparator to characterize frailty. Health domains of frail PLWH were compared with frail matched, uninfected controls. Regression analyses were applied to explore associated risk factors and health-related frailty outcomes.

We recruited 336 PLWH. Majority were male (83%), Chinese (71%) with CD4+ count 561 (397-738) cells/µl. Frailty prevalence among PLWH were 7% (FP); 16% (FS) and 22% (FI). Proportions of psychosocial, functional, and physical domains were similarly distributed among frail PLWH measured by different frailty instruments. When compared with matched controls, psychosocial dominance was significant among the PLWH, but not in functional and physical domains. Identified frailty risk factors included poor nutritional status, higher CD4+ count nadir, depression, metabolic syndrome, higher highly sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and history of AIDS-defining illness (ADI). Frailty influenced the risk for negative health outcomes including increased mortality risk scores, poor quality of life (QOL), frequent healthcare utilization and increased functional disability (p<0.05).

This study highlighted the importance of psychosocial influence in the development of frailty among treated PLWH in a multi-ethnic, Asian setting.