Background HIV patients live longer, and as a result are more exposed to comorbidities and even earlier onset. This leads to a polypharmacy situation, with the consequent risk of adverse effects, interactions and lack of adherence.

Purpose To describe the prevalence of comorbidities, polypharmacy and adherence in the HIV population with antiretroviral treatment (ART) over 65 years of age.

Material and methods Retrospective observational study of the HIV population with ART of a third-level hospital, which between January and July of 2018 had an age of ≥65 years. Polypharmacy was defined as the use of six active ingredients (AI) or more, high polypharmacy using more than 11 and extreme polypharmacy using more than 21 AI (including ART). Demographic, clinical and pharmacotherapeutic characteristics were studied. Patients who took at least 90% of their prescribed ART were classified as good adherers. The comorbidities recorded were hypertension (HT), diabetes mellitus (DM), dyslipidaemia (DSP) and central nervous system (CNS) disorders. The sources of information used were electronic prescribing, clinical history and personal interviews.

Results The patients that met inclusion criteria were 36, of which 77% were males and the mean age was 72.19 years (SD 5.69). Mean age at diagnosis was 57.08 years (SD 9.51). Five patients died during the study period and one did not want to participate, so 30 patients took part in the subsequent analysis. Regarding comorbidities: 56.7% of the patients suffered from HT, 26.7% from DM, 70% from DSP and 43.3% from any CNS-related pathology. Then, of the 30 patients interviewed, 90% presented with polypharmacy and50% of those, a high polypharmacy situation. The average of concomitant AI was 7.4, however the average AI of the ART was 3.3. Finally, 86% were adherent patients.

Conclusion The most prevalent comorbidity in this population was dyslipidaemia, followed by hypertension, from which can be deduced the greater cardiovascular risk they face. The polypharmacy of these patients can be explained through the concomitant drugs, because nowadays ART has been simplified. Despite this high degree of polypharmacy, adherence to ART is very good.

References and/or acknowledgements http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/ejhpharm-2013–000436.31

No conflict of interest.