Nutritional assessment of drug addicts. Relation with HIV infection in early stages

Objective: To assess the nutritional status of drug addicts without acute organic pathology, in order to determine the prevalence of malnutrition and to discern if early HIV infection is associated with a poor nutritional status in this group of patients. Design: Prospective study. Setting: Detoxication unit of a university hospital. Patients: 140 drug addicts without acute organic pathology. 31 patients were HIV+. No one fulfilled the definition of AIDS. Results: We found that drug addicts were undernourished: 92.4% weighed under the mean populational weight and 55.7% had a weight loss above 5%. The distribution of mid upper arm circumference (MUAC), triceps skinfold (TSF) and mid arm muscle area (MAMA) was lower than a reference normal population. Food intakes were poor; 66.4% of our patients complained of anorexia on admission. The mean caloric intake was 978 ± 89 kcal/day in females and 1265 ± 64 kcal/day in males. The mean protein intakes were 39.3 ± 3.3 g/day in females (0.76 ± 0.07 g/kg/day) and 49.7 ± 2.7 g/day in males (0.77 ± 0.04 g/kg/day). When we compared nutritional parameters between HIV+ and HIV- patients we found no differences. Conclusions: Nutritional impairment in drugs abusers with early stages of HIV infection should be attributed to drug abuse rather than to HIV infection.