WEDNESDAY, Nov. 15 (HealthDay News) -- HIV-positive men have a 50 percent to 60 percent higher risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) than HIV-negative men, according to a study in the November issue of Chest.
Amy C. Justice, M.D., Ph.D., from the Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System in West Haven, and colleagues examined the prevalence of COPD in 1,014 HIV-positive and 713 HIV-negative men based on both patient self-report and by diagnostic codes from the International Classification of Diseases, ninth revision (ICD-9).
The researchers found that the prevalence of COPD was similar by the ICD-9 criteria (10 percent in HIV-positive versus 9 percent in HIV-negative men) but significantly different by self-report (15 percent versus 12 percent, respectively). However, after adjusting for demographic factors, smoking, alcohol abuse and injection drug use, they found that the risk of COPD was significantly higher in HIV-positive men by both the ICD-9 criteria (odds ratio 1.47) and self-report (OR, 1.58).
"Health care providers should be aware of the increased likelihood of COPD among their HIV-positive patients," Justice and colleagues conclude. "The possibility that HIV infection increases susceptibility to and/or accelerates COPD deserves further investigation and has implications regarding the pathogenesis of COPD."
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