Profile of anti-retroviral agents use in Colombia

Introduction: Since the beginning of the epidemic, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has taken more than 36 million lives. Objective: To determine the antiretroviral drug prescription patterns in a population of individuals with HIV infection of Colombia. Materials and methods: Cross-sectional study analyzing the profiles of patients treated with antiretroviral drugs between April 1 and September 30, 2015. The sociodemographic, pharmacological, and comorbidity variables were identified. Individuals with a positive diagnosis of HIV of all ages and both genders were included. Results: We found 641 patients with a mean age of 39.0 +/- 17 years who were predominantly male (60.2%). The most used medications were lamivudine-zidovudine (51.6%), lopinavir-ritonavir (36%) and efavirenz (24.5%). The combination of lam ivudine-zidovudine plus lopinavir-ritonavir was the most prescribed regimen (29.5%), but a total of 80 different regimens was identified. Being an adult between the ages of 45-64 years (OR: 2.25; 95%CI:1.367-3.713) was associated with a greater probability of receiving 4 or more antiretrovirals. A total of 267 (41.6%) patients used at least one comedication (range:1-18 drugs), especially anti-ulcer (57.3%), lipid-lowering (28.8%) and antihypertensive (28.5%) drugs. Conclusions: Patients undergoing antiretroviral treatment are receiving medications with elevated intrinsic values at the recommended doses and present comorbidities associated with chronic age-related conditions. However, these patients receive a great variety of regimens that are not included in the clinical practice guidelines.