Background: Millions of people living with the HIV have received antiretroviral therapy (ART). Older adults make up a significant portion of these individuals; however, the immunological and virological responses to ART for older patients still need to be clarified.
Design: Meta-analysis.
Methods: In this article, we systematically reviewed research articles published between 2001 and 2018 that reported immunological and virological responses and AIDS-related mortality among HIV- infected adults (including individuals aged 50 years and older) receiving ART, using meta-analysis. ART efficiency was measured using 3 outcomes: (1) immunological response, (2) virological response, and (3) mortality.
Results: We identified 4937 citations, and 40 studies were eventually selected to investigate ART efficiency in older HIV-infected patients, comprising more than 888,151 patients initiating ART. We report that older patients showed poor immunological responses, with CD4 counts and the restoration of CD4 counts after ART initiation being significantly lower than seen in younger patients. However, older patients exhibited better viral suppression rates (risk ratio: 1.04; 95% confidence intervals: 1.01 to 1.08) after 36 months following ART initiation. In addition, older adults had a higher risk of AIDS-related death (adjusted hazard ratio: 1.44, 95% confidence interval: 1.30 to 1.60).
Conclusions: Older age after ART initiation was associated with a poorer immunological response and a higher risk of mortality, suggesting the need to increase early diagnosis and treatment among older HIV patients.