Associated factors of treatment failure in people living with HIV taking antiretroviral treatment: a scooping review

Abstract

Introduction: It is estimated that by 2019 there are 38 million people living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), for whom antiretroviral treatment is essential. Treatment failure occurs when there is a progression of the disease in clinical, virological, or immunological parameters that lead to a change in treatment and a worse prognosis of the disease. The objective of this panoramic review is to answer the following question: What are the factors associated with the therapeutic failure of antiretroviral treatment in people living with HIV?

Methods: A panoramic review was carried out following the guidelines for systematic reviews suggested by PRISMA-SCR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyzes extension for Scoping Reviews) and modified by Tricco et al. The articles on therapeutic failure in the adult population on the first line of ART were rescued from PubMed and the Virtual Health Library (VHL). The search was limited to a period from 2010 to 2020 and articles whose population was children or pregnant women and articles not available in English or Spanish were excluded.

Information, Analysis and Synthesis: The definition of therapeutic failure used corresponds to the WHO criteria in eight articles, while the rest use the virological criterion in variable reference points. Regarding the factors associated with treatment failure, those with statistical significance grouped into sociodemographic factors (sex, age, age of ART onset, shared HIV status, injection drug use, and educational level) and clinical factors (T CD4+ levels are described at the start of ART, level of adherence, change of regimen, WHO stage at the start of ART, and tuberculosis coinfection).

Conclusions: Two fundamental factors in therapeutic failure are sociodemographic and clinical, which in turn depend on accessibility to treatment, the health system and intrinsic characteristics of the individuals and the behaviors they adopt in relation to their disease.