Quality of food consumption and development of eating disorders among people living with HIV

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection largely impacts on the nutritional status of infected patients. At present, advance in medicine and pharmaceuticals such as antiretroviral drugs help improve health status among people living with HIV (PLHIV). Improving appetite for PLHIV by regaining their normal taste sensation and enhanced naso-oral stimulation can help promote their consumption of larger amounts of food. Previous studies have shown how bad HIV infection affects mental status, which leads to the development of many health problems including eating disorder. This is a cross-sectional study aimed to investigate characteristics of food consumed by PLHIV and comparing that between high-risk and low-risk eating disorder groups. The developed self-respondent questionnaires (baseline questionnaire, eating disorder screening questionnaire, self-adherence questionnaire, and 3-day food record) were completed by 132 HIV infected patients at the Queen Savang Vadhana Memorial Hospital, Chonburi province. The results in a high-risk group were not significant on energy distribution (carbohydrate, protein, fat) compared with a low-risk group, but the data indicated that the high-risk group had a significantly higher intake of saturated fat and sodium compared with the low-risk group. In addition, results indicated that the high-risk group was significantly lower in self-adherent score and CD4 level compared with the low-risk group.