The effect of injecting drug use history on disease progression and death among HIV‐positive individuals initiating combination antiretroviral therapy: collaborative cohort analysis

Background We examined whether determinants of disease progression and causes of death differ between injecting drug users (IDUs) and non‐IDUs who initiate combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). Methods The ART Cohort Collaboration combines data from participating cohort studies on cART‐naïve adults from cART initiation. We used Cox models to estimate hazard ratios for death and AIDS among IDUs and non‐IDUs. The cumulative incidence of specific causes of death was calculated and compared using methods that allow for competing risks. Results Data on 6269 IDUs and 37 774 non‐IDUs were analysed. Compared with non‐IDUs, a lower proportion of IDUs initiated cART with a CD4 cell count