Prevalence of metabolic syndrome among HIV-positive and HIV-negative populations in sub-Saharan Africa-a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a constellation of conditions that increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases. It is an emerging concern in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, particularly because of an increasingly aging population and lifestyle changes. There is an increased risk of MetS and its components among people living with Human immune deficiency syndrome (HIV) individuals; however, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in the SSA population and its differential contribution by HIV status is not yet established. This systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to estimate the pooled prevalence of metabolic syndrome in people living with HIV and uninfected populations, its variation by sub-components. METHODS: We performed a comprehensive search on major databases-MEDLINE (PubMed), EBSCOhost, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and Web of sciences for original epidemiological research articles that compared proportions of the MetS and its subcomponents between people living with HIV and uninfected patients and published between January 1990-December 2017. The inclusion criteria were adults aged ≥ 18 years, with confirmed HIV status. We assessed the risk of bias using a prevalence studies tool, and random effect meta-analyses were used to compute the pooled overall prevalence. RESULTS: A total of four cross-sectional studies comprising 496 HIV uninfected and 731 infected participants were included in the meta-analysis. The overall prevalence of MetS among people living with HIV was 21.5% (95% CI 15.09-26.86) versus uninfected 12.0% (95% CI 5.00-21.00%), with substantial heterogeneity. The reported relative risk estimate for MetS among the two groups was twofold (RR 1.83, 95% CI 0.98-3.41), with an estimated predictive interval of 0.15 to 22.43 and P = 0.055 higher for the infected population. Hypertension was the most prevalent MetS sub-components, with diverse proportions of people living with HIV (5.2-50.0%) and uninfected (10.0-59.0%) populations. CONCLUSIONS: The high range of MetS prevalence in the HIV-infected population compared to the uninfected population highlights the possible presence of HIV related drivers of MetS. Also, the reported high rate of MetS, irrespective of HIV status, indicates a major metabolic disorder epidemic that requires urgent prevention and management programs in SSA. Similarly, in the era of universal test and treat strategy among people living with HIV cohorts, routine check-up of MetS sub-components is required in HIV management as biomarkers. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42016045727

Association of predicted 10 years cardiovascular mortality risk with duration of HIV infection and antiretroviral therapy among HIV-infected individuals in Durban, South Africa

Background: South Africa has the largest population of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART) realising the benefits of increased life expectancy. However, this population may be susceptible to cardiovascular disease (CVD) development, due to the chronic consequences of a lifestyle-related combination of risk factors, HIV infection and ART. We predicted a 10-year cardiovascular mortality risk in an HIV-infected population on long-term ART, based on their observed metabolic risk factor profile. Methods: We extracted data from hospital medical charts for 384 randomly selected HIV-infected patients aged ≥ 30 years. We defined metabolic syndrome (MetS) subcomponents using the International Diabetes Federation definition. A validated non-laboratory-based model for predicting a 10-year CVD mortality risk was applied and categorised into five levels, with the thresholds ranging from very low-risk ( 30%). Results: Among the 384 patients, with a mean (± standard deviation) age of 42.90 ± 8.20 years, the proportion of patients that were overweight/obese was 53.3%, where 50.9% had low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and 21 (17.5%) had metabolic syndrome. A total of 144 patients with complete data allowed a definitive prediction of a 10-year CVD mortality risk. 52% (95% CI 44-60) of the patients were stratified to very low risk ( 30%) of 10-year CVD mortality. The CVD risk grows with increasing age (years), 57.82 ± 6.27 among very high risk and 37.52 ± 4.50; p < 0.001 in very low risk patients. Adjusting for age and analysing CVD risk mortality as a continuous risk score, increasing duration of HIV infection (p = 0.002) and ART (p = 0.007) were significantly associated with increased predicted 10 year CVD mortality risk. However, there was no association between these factors and categorised CVD mortality risk as per recommended scoring thresholds. Conclusions: Approximately 1 in 10 HIV-infected patients is at very high risk of predicted 10-year CVD mortality in our study population. Like uninfected individuals, our study found increased age as a major predictor of 10-year mortality risk and high prevalence of metabolic syndrome. Additional CVD mortality risk due to the duration of HIV infection and ART was seen in our population, further studies in larger and more representative study samples are encouraged. It recommends an urgent need for early planning, prevention and management of metabolic risk factors in HIV populations, at the point of ART initiation

Composition of unfermented, unroasted, roasted cocoa beans and cocoa shells from Peninsular Malaysia

Composition of cocoa beans depends on origin and cocoa processing such as fermentation, drying and roasting. However, less research has been conducted to analyse the composition of Peninsular Malaysia cocoa bean at different processing stages. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine the proximate, phytosterol level, antioxidant content and activity of Peninsular Malaysia unfermented, unroasted, roasted cocoa beans and cocoa shells. Analysis involved was proximate analysis, total phenolic compound (Folin–Ciocalteu reagent assay), antioxidant activity (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl scavenging assay) and phytosterol composition. Results show that the crude fiber of unroasted cocoa beans and cocoa shells increased from 17.19 to 28.45% and 13.86 to 16.06% respectively after roasting process. The roasting process is suspected to increase the dietary fiber content of cocoa products due to the interaction between polysaccharides, protein, polyphenolic and Maillard products at high temperature. The total phenolic content in cocoa bean and cocoa shells ranged from 2.42 to 10.82 µg GAE/ml. The unfermented cocoa beans contain significantly (p < 0.05) higher antioxidant activity (92.3%) compared to other samples. This study shows that cholesterol, stigmasterol and β-sitosterol were present in roasted cocoa beans and cocoa shells. Hence, the information on the composition of Malaysia unfermented, unroasted, roasted cocoa beans and cocoa shells are needed to enrich the databases composition as a reference for the cocoa industry