Gender and long-term metabolic toxicities from antiretroviral therapy in HIV-1 infected persons

Gender differences in a large population‐based cohort of HIV‐1 infected patients (245 women and 723 men) were examined with respect to the incidence of metabolic and morphologic alterations after initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Patients initiated HAART between January 1996 and December 2003. The outcome measures were the incidence of hyperglycemia, hypercholesterolemia, symptomatic lactic acidosis, treatment‐limiting lipodystrophy, and hypersensitivity reaction. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate the crude and adjusted hazard ratios of reaching the endpoints for exposures and covariates. Women were younger than men (35 ± 9.8 vs. 40 ± 8.2 years, P