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Depressive Symptoms at HIV Testing and Two-Year All-Cause Mortality Among Men Who Inject Drugs in Vietnam

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Abstract

People who inject drugs (PWID) with HIV experience an elevated risk of death. A potentially important determinant of survival is the high burden of depression. This study examined the relationship of depressive symptoms at HIV testing with 2-year all-cause mortality among newly diagnosed HIV-positive PWID in Vietnam. At HIV testing, 141 PWID (42%) experienced severe depressive symptoms, and over the 2 years following diagnosis, 82 PWID (24%) died. Controlling for potential confounders, the 2-year risk of death among those with depressive symptoms was 9.7% (95% CI − 1.2, 20.6%) higher than the risk among those without depressive symptoms. This increased risk of mortality for PWID with depressive symptoms was relatively consistent throughout the 2-year period: at 6, 12, and 18 months, the risk difference was 12.6% (5.5–19.7%), 13.9% (4.6–23.2%), and 11.0% (0.9–21.1%), respectively. HIV diagnosis may provide an important opportunity for depression screening and treatment, subsequently improving survival in this key population.

Trial registry: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01689545.

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Funding

Traineeship support was provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (https://www.niaid.nih.gov/): T32 AI070114-10 [SNL]. The parent trial for this study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (http://www.drugabuse.gov): R01 DA022962-01 [VFG TVH NLM TS CAL PTV VMQ CF]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina, Gillings School of Global Public Health, 2101 McGavran-Greenberg Hall, 135 Dauer Drive, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA

    Sara N. Levintow & Brian W. Pence

  2. Department of Health Behavior, University of North Carolina, Gillings School of Global Public Health, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Tran Viet Ha, Teerada Sripaipan & Vivian F. Go

  3. Thai Nguyen Center for Preventive Medicine, Thai Nguyen, Vietnam

    Nguyen Le Minh & Pham The Vu

  4. Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Carl A. Latkin

  5. Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Vu Minh Quan

  6. Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Constantine Frangakis

Authors
  1. Sara N. Levintow
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  2. Brian W. Pence
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  3. Tran Viet Ha
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  4. Nguyen Le Minh
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  5. Teerada Sripaipan
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  6. Carl A. Latkin
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  7. Pham The Vu
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  8. Vu Minh Quan
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  9. Constantine Frangakis
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  10. Vivian F. Go
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sara N. Levintow.

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Ethical Approval

This research was approved by the ethical review committees at the Thai Nguyen Center for Preventive Medicine, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health. All procedures performed were in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.

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Levintow, S.N., Pence, B.W., Ha, T.V. et al. Depressive Symptoms at HIV Testing and Two-Year All-Cause Mortality Among Men Who Inject Drugs in Vietnam. AIDS Behav 23, 609–616 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-018-2318-8

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