Assessing the clinical and anthropological profile of HIV+ Adolescents in Surat, Gujarat: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction: Adolescents (10–19 years) and young people (20–24 years) continue to be vulnerable to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection despite efforts to date. HIV-infected adolescents with long standing HIV infection often face considerable physical challenges - delayed growth and development, stunting/wasting and malnutrition. Objectives: (a) To study the clinical profile of HIV infected adolescents (b) To assess the anthropometric profile using age-standardized scores. Method: The cross-sectional study was conducted at HIV clinic, at Anti-retroviral Treatment (ART) Centre, Surat (Tertiary Care Level Institute) among adolescents between age-group 13-19 years during December-2015 to February-2016. Based on the desk review, total 134 adolescents were identified, out of which 105, could be contacted during study period and fit in the inclusion criteria. Participants who were alive, on Pre-ART/ART and their status had been disclosed and gave consent for the interview were included in the study. Results: Majority of the participants were on ART (95.3%). About half (55.6%) of the participants had suffered from opportunistic infection. Majority of the patients were at WHO stage I (93.75). Mean CD4 count during study was 640 cells/cubic mm (SD±401.42). Out of 105 participants, 14.5% were suffering from severe thinness and 14.5% were suffering from thinness & 36.2% participants were suffering from severe stunting and 16.4% were suffering from stunting. Mean age of participants was 15.64 years (SD ±2.02). Majority of the participants belonged to Socio-economic class IV (36.8%) and class III (31.1%) followed by Class V (17%), class II (13.2%) and Class I (1.9%). Conclusion: The anthropometric measurements suggest that nutrition aspect is not fully recovered, as majority of the participants suffer from stunting and wasting; stunting more than wasting indicating chronic malnutrition.