Impact of nutritional supplementation on immune response, body mass index and bioelectrical impedance in HIV-positive patients starting antiretroviral therapy

Abstract

Background: Challenges to HIV care in resource limited settings (RLS) include malnutrition. Limited evidence supports the benefit of nutritional supplementation when starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) in RLS. Methods. Randomized controlled pilot study. HIV-positive ART-naive adults with self-reported weight loss were randomized to receive ART plus FutureLife porridge® nutritional supplement (NS) (388 kcal/day) or ART alone (Controls) for 6 months. Patients returned for monthly assessments and blood was drawn at enrolment and 6 months on ART. Differences in body composition, biochemical and laboratory parameters were estimated at 6 months on treatment. Results: Of the 36 randomized patients, 26 completed the 6 month follow-up (11 NS vs 15 Controls). At enrolment, groups were similar in terms of age, gender, body mass index (BMI) and bioelectrical impedance. NS patients had a lower median CD4 count (60 cells/mm3 [IQR 12-105 vs 107 cells/mm3 [IQR 63-165]; p = 0.149) and hemoglobin (10.3 g/dL [IQR 9.0-11.3] vs 13.1 g/dL [IQR 11.1-14.7]; p = 0.001).At 6 months, NS patients increased their median CD4 count by 151 cells/mm3 [IQR 120-174) vs 77 cells/mm3 [IQR 33-145] in the Controls. NS patients had higher mean percentage change in body weight (12.7% vs 4.9%; p = 0.047), BMI (7.8% vs 5.5%; p = 0.007), absolute CD4 count (83.0% vs 46.4%, p = 0.002) and hemoglobin (9.5% vs 1.0%; p = 0.026). Patients in the NS arm had a higher mean percentage fat-free mass (16.7% vs -3.5%, p = 0.036), total body water (13.0% vs -1.9%, p = 0.026), intracellular water (16.1% vs -4.1%, p = 0.010) and basal metabolic rate (5.3% vs -0.2%, p = 0.014) compared to Controls. Patients in the NS arm also showed an improvement in physical activity at 6 months post-ART initiation compared to Controls (p = 0.037). Conclusion: Preliminary results are encouraging and suggest that NS taken concurrently with ART can promote weight gain, improve immune response and improve physical activity in HIV-positive patients that present at ART initiation with weight loss. © 2013 Evans et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.