Comorbidities and polypharmacy among HIV-positive patients aged 50 years and over: a case–control study

Objective This study was to determine and compare the prevalences of polypharmacy and comorbidities in patients aged 50 years or older with those patients younger than 50 years in a Mexican population. Results One hundred and twenty-five patients were enrolled, 60 (48%) were aged 50 years or older. The median CD4+ cell counts were 509 cells/μL (interquartile range [IQR]: 324–730) for the older patients and 384 cells/μL (IQR: 262–562) ( P = 0.021) for the younger patients. Viral suppression were significantly higher in the older group: 80% vs. 63% ( P = 0.037). The number of comorbidities was significantly higher in the older group, with a median of 2 (IQR: 2–3) vs. 1 (IQR: 0–1) ( P ≤ 0.001). After adjustment of the logistic regression model in the older group, the following comorbidities differed between the age groups: systemic arterial hypertension (odds ratio [OR]: 15.75; 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.49–71.05; P = < 0.001), diabetes mellitus (OR: 14.36; 95% CI 1.79–115.07; P = 0.001), osteoarthritis (OR: 10.33; 95% CI 2.88–37.05; P = < 0.001), hyperlipidemia (OR: 2.78; 95% CI 1.22–6.34; P = 0.001), and polypharmacy (OR: 6.58; 95% CI 3.01–14.39; P = 0.001).