Presentation and outcome amongst older Singaporeans living with human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS): does age alone drive excess mortality?

Introduction: There is little detailed information on human immunodefi ciency virus (HIV) amongst older adults in Singapore. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study of 121 consecutive referrals of patients presenting for HIV care was conducted. Demographic, clinical and laboratory variables were collected. A prognostic model derived from the North American Veterans’ Affairs Cohort Study (VACS) was used to estimate prognosis. Results: The median age at presentation was 43 (range, 18 to 76). Thirty-eight patients (31%) were aged 50 or older and 106 patients (88%) were male. Older patients were more likely to be of Chinese ethnicity (P = 0.035), married (P = 0.0001), unemployed or retired (P = 0.0001), and to have acquired their infection heterosexually (P = 0.0002). The majority of patients in both groups were symptomatic at presentation. Eighty-one (67%) had CD4 counts less than 200 at baseline with no observable differences in HIV ribonucleic acid (RNA) or clinical stage based on age. Non-Acquired Immunodefi ciency Syndrome (AIDS) morbidity was observed more frequently amongst older patients. The estimated prognosis of patients differed signifi cantly based on age. Using the VACS Index and comparing younger patients with those aged 50 and above, mean 5 year mortality estimates were 25% and 50% respectively (P <0.001). A trend towards earlier antiretroviral therapy was noted amongst older patients (P = 0.067) driven mainly by fewer fi nancial diffi culties reported as barriers to treatment. Conclusion: Older patients form a high proportion of newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS cases and present with more non-AIDS morbidity. This confers a poor prognosis despite comparable fi ndings with younger patients in terms of clinical stage, AIDS-defi ning illness, CD4 count and HIV viral load. Ann Acad Med Singapore 2012;41:581-6