Page 163 - HIVMED_v21_i1.indb

Southern African Journal of HIV Medicine
ISSN: (Online) 2078-6751, (Print) 1608-9693
Page 1 of 8 Original Research

Tobacco smoking and associated factors in human

immunodeficiency virus-infected adults attending

human immunodeficiency virus clinics in the

Western Cape province, South Africa

Authors: Background: In human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals, smoking
Muyunda Mutemwa 1 increases both HIV-related and non-related negative health outcomes.
Nasheeta Peer 1,2
Anniza de Villiers 3 Objectives: To determine the prevalence and associations of smoking in HIV-infected adults
Mieke Faber 1
Andre-Pascal Kengne 1,2 receiving antiretroviral therapy at public healthcare facilities in the Western Cape province,
South Africa.
Affiliations:
1 Non-Communicable Methods: Participants comprised 827 HIV-infected patients, who were > 18 years old
Diseases Research Unit, and randomly selected from 17 HIV healthcare facilities. Self-reported smoking was
South African Medical defined as smoking tobacco daily or occasionally. Serum cotinine levels confirmed smoking
Research Council, Cape Town,
South Africa status.
Results: Participants included 653 women and 174 men. The overall mean (standard
2 Department of Medicine,
University of Cape Town, deviation [SD]) age was 38.9 (9.0) years, 41.1 (8.9) years in men and 37.7 (8.9) years in
Cape Town, South Africa women (p ˂ 0.001). The median diagnosed duration of HIV infection was 5 years. Smoking
prevalence was 22% overall, and 26% in men and 21% in women (p = 0.022). The prevalence
3 Research Capacity of former smoking was 14%. About a quarter of participants (185/751; 24.6%) had serum
Development Division,
South African Medical cotinine levels > 100 mg/mL with similar prevalence of high levels across smoking status
Research Council, Cape (current smokers: 27.2%, former smokers: 29.6% and never smokers: 22.7%, p = 0.564) and
Town, South Africa did not vary by age, gender, cluster of differentiation 4 count or known duration of HIV.
There was no agreement between self-reports and cotinine levels at ranking smoking
Corresponding author:
Andre Kengne, exposure.
[email protected]
Conclusions: Prevalence of current tobacco smoking in HIV-infected patients on care is within
Dates: the range of that in the general population. This highlights the potential missed opportunity or
Received: 15 Jan. 2020 challenges of co-addressing smoking cessation in individuals already in regular contact with
Accepted: 14 Feb. 2020 the health system.
Published: 21 Apr. 2020
Keywords: HIV and AIDS; smoking; cotinine; prevalence; South Africa.
How to cite this article:
Mutemwa M, Peer N,
De Villiers A, Faber M,
Kengne AP. Tobacco smoking Introduction
and associated factors in
human immunodeficiency Globally, over 1.1 billion men and women ≥ 15 years of age currently smoke tobacco. Consequently,
virus-infected adults attending tobacco use is a growing public health burden worldwide that was responsible for 7.1 million
human immunodeficiency deaths in 2016. Even in South Africa (SA), despite the introduction of comprehensive legislative
1
virus clinics in the Western action to discourage tobacco use since the early 1990s, tobacco smoking remains a major public
Cape province, South Africa.
2
3
S Afr J HIV Med. 2020;21(1), health problem. In 2016, 37% of men and 8.0% of women ≥ 15 years of age smoked tobacco.
a1072. https://doi.org/ Tobacco smoking contributes to a large burden of the preventable disease accounting for 8.0% –
10.4102/sajhivmed.v21i1.1072 9.0% of mortality in SA. While lung cancer had the largest attributable fraction because of tobacco
2
smoking, cardiovascular diseases contributed to the largest proportion of deaths caused by
smoking.
The impact of smoking extends beyond the well-known consequences of tobacco use to other
conditions including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. In people living with HIV
Read online:
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code with your greater and threaten efforts in controlling HIV and AIDS. Smoking increases both HIV-related
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Copyright: © 2020. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
http://www.sajhivmed.org.za 155 Open Access