Diabetes, mortality and glucose monitoring rates in the TREAT Asia HIV Observational Database Low Intensity Transfer (TAHOD‐LITE) study

OBJECTIVES: Diabetes is a growing cause of morbidity and mortality in people living with HIV (PLHIV) receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART). We investigated the association between fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels and mortality, and factors associated with FPG monitoring rates in Asia. METHODS: Patients from the Therapeutics Research, Education, and AIDS Training in Asia (TREAT Asia) HIV Observational Database Low Intensity Transfer (TAHOD-LITE) cohort were included in the present study if they had initiated ART. Competing risk and Poisson regression were used to analyse the association between FPG and mortality, and assess risk factors for FPG monitoring rates, respectively. FPG was categorized as diabetes (FPG ≥ 7.0 mmol/L), prediabetes (FPG 5.6-6.9 mmol/L) and normal FPG (FPG  50 years (IRR 1.14; 95% CI 1.09-1.19) compared to ≤ 40 years, and CD4 count ≥ 500 cells/μL (IRR 1.04; 95% CI 1.00-1.09) compared to < 200 cells/μL were associated with increased FPG monitoring. CONCLUSIONS: Diabetes and prediabetes were associated with mortality. FPG monitoring increased over time; however, less than half of our cohort had been tested. Greater resources should be allocated to FPG monitoring for early diabetic treatment and intervention and to optimize survival.