Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy
Open Access

Research Article

Drug Abuse in People Living with HIV in the Era of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

¹Division of Health Sciences, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK

²Warwick-Center for Applied Health Research and Delivery (WCAHRD), Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK

³Center for Applied Health Research and Delivery (CAHRD), Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK

⁴Epidemiology and Public Health Research Unit, Department of Population Health, Luxembourg Institute of Health, L-1445 Strassen, Luxembourg, UK

Corresponding Author:

Chidozie U Nduka
Division of Health Sciences, Warwick Medical School
University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, United Kingdom
Tel: +44(0)7472730268
E-mail: C.U.Nduka@warwick.ac.uk

Received date: November 01, 2015 Accepted date: December 23, 2015; Published date: December 31, 2015

Citation: Nduka CU, Uthman OA, Kimani PK, Stranges S (2015) Drug Abuse in People Living with HIV in the Era of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Addict Res Ther 6:255. doi:0.4172/2155-6105.1000255

Copyright: © 2015 Nduka CU, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Objective: Little is known about the epidemiology of drug abuse in HIV-infected populations. Therefore, we aimed to estimate the prevalence of drug abuse among people living with HIV. We also sought to examine factors potentially associated with drug abuse in this high-risk population subgroup.
Methods: We searched EMBASE and PubMed databases from 1997 to September 2015 for studies that reported crude prevalence estimates of drug abuse in people living with HIV. Using random-effects meta-analysis, we pooled prevalence estimates of all forms of drug abuse, including alcohol, crack/cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, over-the-counter, tobacco/nicotine, and prescription drugs. We defined drug abuse strictly in terms of its accompanying self-damaging effects. Random-effects meta-regression analysis was performed on all study-level characteristics to identify factors that may be associated with drug abuse in HIV-infected persons.
Results: Seventy two studies, comprising 153,711 HIV-infected participants, met our inclusion criteria. Majority (87%) of the study population was resident in the United States (US). Overall, the prevalence of drug abuse was 33.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 28.2 to 39.3, I2=99.7%, 31 studies, 28,238 participants), with prescription drugs identified as the most abused (42.7%, 95% CI 25.7 to 60.6, I2=99.7%, 14 studies, 1775 participants). While HIV infection duration (coefficient 0.03, 95% CI 0.0003 to 0.05, P=0.49, explained variance [R2]=51.3%) and ethnicity (Hispanic/Latino) (coefficient 0.006, 95% CI 0.001 to 0.01, P=0.012, R2=23.2%) may be determinants of drug abuse in people living with HIV, exposure to antiretroviral treatment was a strong deterrent (coefficient -0.004, 95% CI -0.01 to -0.0001, P=0.048, R2=10.1%).
Conclusion: One in three HIV-infected persons may be affected by drug abuse, with HIV infection duration and ethnicity (Hispanic) identified as predictors of this disorder. However, most of the available evidence comes from US studies. More studies originating from low- and middle-income countries are needed to obtain more precise estimates.

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