People aged 65 or older with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) receive significantly more non-antiretroviral therapy (non-ART) medications, compared with patients with HIV who are between ages 50 and 64, according to a new study.
Moreover, in a sample of more than 900 patients with HIV, about 60% were taking at least one potentially inappropriate medication (PIM).
Dr Jacqueline McMillan
“Clinicians looking after persons living with HIV need to provide medication reconciliation with prioritization of medications based on the patients’ wishes and patients’ goals and life expectancy,” lead author Jacqueline McMillan, MD, clinical assistant professor of geriatric medicine at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, told Medscape Medical News.
The findings were published online February 5 in the Canadian Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Examining the Pill Burden
A geriatrician by training and a clinical researcher with an interest in aging in patients with HIV, McMillan said she began to observe that many older adults with HIV were on polypharmacy. “There are many other things that aging people with HIV experience, such as frailty, falls, cognitive impairment, medication nonadherence, and mortality, but in this study, we focused just on the polypharmacy,” said McMillan.
Her aim was to see if there was a way to improve the pill burden in these older adults.
