Statins and Aspirin Use in HIV-infected People: Gap Between European AIDS Clinical Society Guidelines and Clinical Practice: the Results from HIV-HY Study

Objectives: To investigate the use of statins and acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) in HIV people in clinical practice.

Design: A multicenter, nationwide, prospective cohort study, including 1182 consecutive HIV patients was conducted.

Methods: Statin and ASA prescription was evaluated in primary and secondary cardiovascular disease prevention, according to the European AIDS Clinical Society (EACS) guidelines.

Results: Followed-up patients (998) were mostly males (70.9 %) with a mean age at enrolment of 46.5 years (SD 9.5). The mean time of follow-up was 3.3 years (SD 0.8). At the last follow-up visit, statins would have been recommended for 31.2 % and ASA for 16 % by EACS guidelines. Conversely, only 15.6 and 7.6 % of patients were on statin and ASA treatment, respectively; only 50.3 % of patients treated with statins achieved recommended low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) levels. At the last follow-up visit, agreement between statin therapy and EACS recommendation was 0.58 (95 % CI 0.52-0.63). The corresponding figure for ASA therapy was 0.50 (95 % CI 0.42-0.58), whereas the agreement for ASA therapy in secondary prevention was 0.59 (95 % CI 0.50-0.68).

Conclusions: The prescription of statins and ASA in HIV-infected patients remains largely suboptimal, as only about 50 % of patients requiring statins and ASA are properly treated. Higher attention on this relevant issue and further investigation are warranted in this at risk population.