Birth Country Influences the Choice of Antiretroviral Therapy in HIV-Infected Individuals: Experience From a French HIV Centre.

Objectives: To assess whether antiretroviral therapy (ART) prescriptions differ between naive and virally suppressed HIV patients born in France (PBFs) and in Sub-Saharan Africa (PBSSAs).
Setting: Observational single-center study.
Methods: We included all PBFs and PBSSAs who entered into care at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris, France, from 01/01/2000 to 31/12/2018, with plasma HIV-RNA>200 copies/mL. We first compared the initial ART in naive PBFs and PBSSAs. Second, we compared the last-prescribed ART (including drug-reduced ART: daily 2-drug regimens, daily 1-drug regimens and intermittent 3-drug regimens) in virally suppressed PBFs and PBSSAs, by focusing on patients in care in 2018 with HIV-RNA <50 copies for at least 24 months. A univariable and multivariable logistic regression model was used to assess the impact of geographical origin on ART prescriptions.
Results: A total of 1944 naive patients were included (915 PBSSAs and 1029 PBFs). PBSSAs were more frequently women, hepatitis B coinfected, with a lower pretherapeutic CD4 T-cell count, and most had tuberculosis at HIV diagnosis. After adjustment for confounders, PBSSAs were more likely to receive a first-line protease inhibitor-based regimen (OR 1.61, 95% CI: 1.31 to 1.98), and less likely to receive an integrase inhibitor-based regimen (OR 0.61, 95% CI: 0.42 to 0.88). Of the 968 virally suppressed patients (431 PBSSAs and 537 PBFs), PBSSAs were less likely to receive drug-reduced ART, including 2-drug regimens and intermittent three-drug regimens (OR 0.48, 95% CI: 0.36 to 0.65).
Conclusions: Differences in ART prescriptions between PBSSAs and PBFs were not only explained by different clinical and virologic situations. Personal motivations of doctors in choosing ART according to country of birth need to be explored.
Competing Interests: R.P., L.C., S.S., C.S., R.T., M.A.V., L.S., V.P., and C.K. have received travel grants and honoraria from Gilead, ViiV Healthcare, and Merck. AGM has received travel and research grants and honoraria from Gilead, ViiV Healthcare, Theratechnologies and Merck. The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
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