New research shows that patients who are HIV positive may be at an increased risk for developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Researchers from Yale University School of Medicine investigated the prevalence of COPD among 1,014 HIV-positive and 713 HIV-negative men enrolled in the Veterans Aging Cohort 5 Site Study. Results showed that the prevalence of COPD was 10 percent in HIV-positive and 9 percent in HIV-negative patients, as reported by ICD-9 codes, and 15 percent and 12 percent respectively, as indicated by patient self-report.
However, after adjusting for age, race/ethnicity, pack-years of smoking, and injection drug use and alcohol abuse, HIV infection was an independent risk factor for COPD, with HIV-infected patients 50 to 60 percent more likely to have COPD than HIV-negative subjects. This study appears in the November issue of CHEST, the peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Chest Physicians.