Low Body Mass Index Helps Detect HIV Infection in Uganda

Background: According to the most recent study of World Health Organization (WHO), 36.7 million people were living with HIV by the end of 2016 world-wide, and almost two-thirds of them are residing in Sub-Saharan Africa. Especially Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the most effected regions. UN statistics states that 65% of the population is infected with HIV. Although the Uganda Ministry of Health (MOH) has implemented the “Nutritional Education Program” at a hospital level, the actual nutritional condition of HIV positive people has not been documented yet. Therefore, we executed this investigation to examine the nutritional condition, and the eating habits, of HIV positive people compared to HIV negative people in Uganda.

Place and Duration of Study: Kampala, Busia, Mbende, Mbende General Hospital HIV Clinic, and Masafu General Hospital HIV Clinic in Uganda. 24th August 2013 and 2nd September 2013.

Methods: Eighty HIV positive patients visited two hospitals, and one hundred and eleven individuals who self-reported as HIV negative in Kampala, Mbende and Busia. Participant’s weight, height and body size were measured using an electric weight scale, and a measuring tape were used to calculate BMI using standard equations. After calculating BMI scores for low BMI were filtered according to the WHO criteria (BMI<18.5). BMI scores were categorized by gender.

Results: There was a significant difference in BMI mean values between HIV positive and negative people. Although HIV positive and negative subjects consumed a similar amount of food every day, the mean BMI of HIV positive people is lower than that of HIV negative people. We saw similar results for all age groups.

Conclusion: HIV infection in the non-symptomatic carrier stage may influence the nutritional condition and eating habits for people in Uganda. Therefore, BMI measurement could be a very useful method for assessing chronic malnutrition.