Prevalence and correlates of frailty among older people with and without HIV in rural Uganda.

Abstract

Background: The relationship between HIV and frailty, a predictor of poor outcomes in the face of stressors, remains unknown in older people in sub-Saharan Africa.

Methods: We analysed data from the Quality of Life and Ageing with HIV in Rural Uganda cohort study to estimate the prevalence and correlates of frailty among older people with HIV (PWH) on long-term antiretroviral therapy and among age and sex-similar HIV-uninfected comparators. Frailty was defined as a self-report of 3 or 4 (and pre-frailty as 1 or 2) of the following phenotypic variables: weight loss, exhaustion, low activity, and slowness. We estimated the prevalence of frailty and pre-frailty and fitted logistic regression models to estimate the association between HIV and frailty, adjusting for sociodemographic factors, depression, and other comorbidities.

Results: We enrolled 599 participants (49% women) with a mean age of 58 years. PWH had a similar prevalence of frailty (8.1% vs. 10.9%, p=0.24) but a lower prevalence of pre-frailty (54.2% vs. 63.2%, p=0.03) compared with their HIV-uninfected comparators. In multivariable regression models, people with depression (AOR 7.52 [95% CI: 3.67-15.40], p<0.001) and those with ≥1 comorbidities (AOR 3.15 [95% CI: 1.71-3.82], p<0.001) were more likely to be frail. HIV serostatus was not significantly associated with frailty (AOR 0.71 [95% CI: 0.37-1.34], p=0.29).

Conclusion: Older PWH had a similar prevalence of frailty as those without HIV. These findings call for additional study of the factors that contribute to the robustness of older PWH in sub-Saharan Africa.