Alcohol Use: Prevalence and Association with Treatment Outcome among Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Positive Clients at Military Hospital, Makurdi, Benue state, Nigeria
Godian Chibueze Ezema
Department of Community Medicine, College of Medicine, Enugu, Nigeria and Centre for Infectious Diseases Control, 161 Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Hospital Makurdi, Benue, Nigeria.
Elias Chikee Aniwada *
Department of Community Medicine, College of Medicine, Enugu, Nigeria.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Background: Alcohol consumption can affect the immune system, adherence to ART, CD4 count, and viral load in HIV-infected individuals, which can potentially lead to metabolic dysregulation. The study aims to evaluate alcohol use and its association with treatment outcome among clients on care in the military HIV programme.
Methods: The study was at Nigerian Air Force Hospital, Makurdi, Benue state, Nigeria among all HIV positive clients ≥ 18 years. A simple random sampling method was adopted. An analytical cross-sectional study was done using WHO ASSIST questionnaire. Chi-square test was applied to ascertain association of Alcohol use with clients’ characteristics and treatment outcome. Logistic regression was used for further analysis to identify predictors.
Results: Higher proportion 237(59.6%) used Alcohol mildly. In all, 313(70.3%) used alcohol with other substance especially Tobacco 204(65.2%). There were significant association of alcohol use with age (p = 0.001), gender (p < 0.001), education (p= 0.001), marital status (p < 0.001) and religion (; p= 0.011). Females were about 40% times (AOR 0.47; 95% CI 0.12-0.86) likely to use Alcohol compared to males. Those who had ever used alcohol were more likely to have poor viral load suppression (p=0.013). Those that have ever used Alcohol were about 1.9 times (AOR 1.85; 95% CI 1.04-3.22) more likely to have poor viral load suppression than those that have not.
Conclusion: Alcohol use is a determinant of viral load suppression. It also influenced some clients’ characteristics. There is need for Policy recommendations for reducing alcohol consumption among PLHIV for improved prognosis of HIV clients.
Keywords: Alcohol use, HIV, viral load, CD4 count