Cardiometabolic Disease Risk and HIV Status in Rural South Africa: Establishing a Baseline

F. Xavier Gómez-Olivé, University of the Witwatersrand
Brian Houle, Australian National University
Margaret Thorogood, University of Warwick
Kerstin Klipstein-Grobusch, University of the Witwatersrand
Chodziwadziwa Kabudula, University of the Witwatersrand
Jill Williams, University of Colorado, Boulder
Jane Menken, University of Colorado, Boulder
Stephen Tollman, University of the Witwatersrand

To inform health care, resource, and research priorities, it is essential to establish how non-communicable disease risk factors vary by HIV-status and those on anti-retroviral therapy. We conducted a HIV/cardiometabolic risk factor survey in 2010–2011 using an age-sex stratified random sample of ages 15+ in rural South Africa. We modeled cardiometabolic risk factors by HIV-status and self-reported ART status for ages 18+ using sex-stratified logistic regression. Age-standardized HIV prevalence in women was 26% and 19% in men. People with untreated HIV were less likely to have a high waist circumference. Untreated women were more likely to have low HDL and LDL, and treated women high triglycerides. The prevalence of hypertension was high (40% in women; 30% in men). Sub-Saharan Africa is facing intersecting epidemics of HIV and hypertension. In this setting, around half the adult population require long-term care for at least one of HIV, hypertension or diabetes.