Age-standardized comparison of coronary artery disease, stroke incidence, and all-cause mortality between people living with HIV and the general population in Spain

Objectives

We compared 15-year incidence of coronary artery disease (CAD), stroke, and all-cause mortality between people living with HIV (PLWH) and the Spanish general population.

Methods

We compared two Spanish cohorts—VACH (PLWH) and REGICOR (general population). We followed adults aged 25-74 years, free of CAD or stroke, for a mean of 15 years. We used age-standardized 15-year incidence of CAD, stroke, and all-cause mortality and compared cohorts with log-rank tests and Cox models adjusted for confounders.

Results

We included 6829 PLWH and 10,218 general population. In men aged 25-54 years with HIV, the adjusted standardized incidence rates of CAD and stroke were similar to those in the general population. In addition, PLWH had significantly higher crude all-cause standardized mortality rates than the general population: men 2790 (2536-3044) vs 1104 (1015-1192) and women 2011 (1632-2391) vs 588 (528-648) (all P-values <0.001). Moreover, the adjusted hazard ratio of all-cause mortality was much higher in PLWH younger than 55 years (hazard ratio 3.08 [2.42-3.90] in men and 4.71 [3.13-7.09] in women).

Conclusions

The adjusted risk of CAD and stroke among PLWH is similar to that of the general population. However, PLWH younger than 55 years still face a more than three-fold higher risk of death from any cause.