Pill Burden and Polypharmacy
While its definition varies slightly among aging literature, in its application with HIV/AIDS, polypharmacy is commonly defined as occurring when a patient is on five or more chronic medications (Edelman et al., 2013). The issue of polypharmacy is a universal issue when managing geriatric patients. However, it is becoming an increasingly prevalent issue in the increasing aging HIV population. While the HIV related pill-burden has decreased significantly due to advances in antiretroviral medication, in a study examining the total daily pill burden for HIV patients, Krentz, Cosman, Lee, Ming & Gill (2012) found that while the total pill burden has fallen from 1998 to 2010, the reduction in HIV medication was replaced…show more content… Before ART, HIV was a fatal disease. But as people are now living with HIV as a long-term disease, individuals are developing comorbidities and as a result are dying of other complications than AIDS. Both the rates of mortality and rate of AIDS-related death has vastly improved since the use of effective ART therapy. From 1996-2004 the use of highly active antiretroviral therapy increased from 43% of patients to 82% of patients (Palella et al., 2006). Not only has the death-rate of HIV-infected individuals decreased since 1996, going from 7.0 deaths/100 persons-years to in 2004 only 1.3 deaths/100 persons-years, the number of AIDS-related deaths decrease in this time span as well (Palella et al., 2006). In 1996, 3.70/100 persons-years died of AIDS-related causes, and by 2004 this statistic was at 0.32/100 persons-years (Palella et al., 2006). There was however an increase in deaths related to other non-AIDS related diseases. Between the years of 1996 and 2004, non-AIDS deaths increased from 13.1% to 42.5% with the increased deaths being caused most commonly by: bacteremia/sepsis, gastrointestinal disease, hepatic disease, non-AIDS malignancies and renal disease (Palella et al.,
