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Effect of nutritional education and dietary counselling on body weight in HIV‐seropositive South Africans not receiving antiretroviral therapy
Author(s) -
Van Niekerk C.,
Smego R. A.,
Sanne I.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of human nutrition and dietetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.951
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1365-277X
pISSN - 0952-3871
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-277x.2000.00255.x
Subject(s) - medicine , weight loss , concomitant , adverse effect , antiretroviral therapy , vitamin , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , weight gain , body weight , pediatrics , obesity , immunology , viral load
Background Unintentional weight loss of > 10% contributes to morbidity and mortality in HIV‐infected patients. In poorer developing countries, cost‐effective options to promote weight gain are extremely limited. Methods We conducted a pilot study of the effect of nutritional education and dietary counselling on body weight in 90 HIV/AIDS patients. Education entailed principles of healthy eating, socioeconomics of nutrition, food safety, and symptom‐related dietary guidelines. Other clinical parameters examined for potential impact on body weight included age, sex, CD4+ lymphocyte count, presence of complicating infections, concomitant medications, vitamin use, and nutritional supplementation. No patients received antiretroviral therapy. Results At study end (mean follow‐up, 4.2 months) body weight compared to baseline was greater in study subjects than in controls ( P < 0.01); stable or increasing weight was seen in 73% of study patients. Weight gain (≥ 1 kg) occurred in 53% of counselled patients (mean = 3.5 kg; range 1–11 kg) vs. 21% of matched controls (mean = 2.0 kg; range 1–3 kg) ( P < 0.03). Nutritional counselling was found to offset the adverse effects of gastrointestinal tract or systemic infection (especially in patients with CD4+ counts < 200 cells mm –3 ). Conclusion In low‐resource areas, culturally and economically relevant nutritional education and dietary counselling are simple yet effective means of stabilizing or increasing body weight in HIV‐infected patients.