Clinical Research Directory

A Comparative Study on the Prevalence of Multimorbidity, Polypharmacy and Potentially Inappropriate Prescriptions Among the General Population and People Living With HIV in the Basque Country

Sponsor: Biogipuzkoa Health Research Institute

Summary

Advances in antiretroviral treatment for people living with HIV have brought their life expectancy into line with that of the general population. These individuals now have a higher prevalence of multiple co-morbidities and polypharmacy than the general population. According to the latest report on the AIDS plan, there are 6,273 patients in our region currently receiving antiretroviral treatment. However, the recent corporate care pathway for people with multiple co-morbidities in the Basque Country's public health system does not include patients with HIV. This fact, together with the lack of data on the prevalence of multiple co-morbidities, polypharmacy and potentially inappropriate prescribing among these individuals in our region, motivated the conduct of this study. Its aim is to estimate this prevalence among all people with HIV receiving care in the infectious diseases departments of the hospitals in Araba, Basurto, Galdakao, Cruces and Donostia, and to compare it with a control group without HIV. To this end, we designed a cross-sectional comparative study involving 6,273 people with HIV and a control group drawn from the general population through stratified sampling according to the distribution by age, sex and health centre of the HIV population. The results, obtained by extracting data from electronic health records, will enable us to confirm whether the HIV-positive population has a higher prevalence of multimorbidity, polypharmacy and inappropriate prescribing than the general population. The results obtained from both populations will provide us with the necessary knowledge to update the corporate care pathway and to plan coordinated care for HIV-positive patients with multimorbidity.

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