Nutritional status and its associated factors among HIV adolescents on second line regimen at Pediatric Infectious Diseases Clinic in Uganda

Abstract We performed a cross-sectional study to describe the nutritional status among HIV positive adolescents on Atazanavir-based regimen attending Pediatric Infectious Diseases Clinic (PIDC), in which 132 adolescents were included. Undernutrition was defined as a binary composite outcome (thinness or stunting): 28% were undernourished, 7.25% were thin, and 25% were stunted. Adolescents with no parent were more likely to be undernourished (APR: 2.50, 95% CI: 1.15–5.39, p-value = .020). Adolescents who had attained at least secondary education were less likely to be undernourished (APR: 0.54, CI:0.32–0.92, p-value = .024). Prevalence of undernutrition observed among HIV positive adolescents was lower compared to other studies. However, this is still high for an urban center, and this is concerning with increasing rates of drug resistance in an era of increased ART accessibility. This calls for more support and appropriate interventions for further optimizing nutrition care among adolescents on HIV treatment to mitigate the rise of resistance to second line regimens.