Document Type

Article

Date of Original Version

2018

Department

Pharmacy Practice

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a routine multivitamin supplementation program for adults living with HIV in Tanzania.

Design: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 67,707 adults enrolled in the Dar es Salaam HIV care and treatment program during 2004-2012.

Methods: The Dar es Salaam HIV care and treatment program intended to provide all adult patients with multivitamin supplements (vitamins B-complex, C, and E) free of charge; however, intermittent stockouts and other implementation issues did not afford universal coverage. We use Cox proportional hazard models to assess the time-varying association of multivitamin supplementation with mortality and clinical outcomes.

Results: The study cohort contributed 41,540 and 129,315 person-years of follow-up time to the ART-naïve and ART-experienced analyses, respectively. Among 48,207 ART-naïve adults, provision of multivitamins reduced the risk of mortality (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR): 0.69; 95% CI: 0.59-0.81), incident tuberculosis (TB) (aHR: 0.83; 0.76-0.91), and meeting ART eligibility criteria (aHR: 0.78; 95% CI: 0.73-0.83) after adjustment for time-varying confounding. Among 46,977 ART-experienced patients, multivitamins reduced mortality (HR: 0.86; 95% CI: 0.80-0.92), incident TB (aHR: 0.78; 95% CI: 0.73-0.84), and immunologic failure (aHR: 0.70; 95% CI: 0.67-0.73). The survival benefits associated with provision multivitamins appeared to be greatest during the first year of ART and declined over time (p-value <0.001).

Conclusion: Multivitamin supplementation appears to be a simple, effective, safe, and scalable program to improve survival, reduce incidence of TB, and improve treatment outcomes for adult HIV patients in Tanzania.

Comment

Submission uses working title and will be updated when final version is available on publishers website.

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