Comorbidity indices in people with HIV and considerations for coronavirus disease 2019 outcomes

OBJECTIVE:To determine comorbidity indices in people with HIV (PWH) and lifestyle-similar HIV-negative controls. DESIGN:Cross-sectional analysis of the Pharmacokinetic and clinical Observations in PeoPle over fiftY cohort study in the United Kingdom and Ireland. METHODS:The Elixhauser Comorbidity Index (ECI), Charlson Comorbidity Index and the Comorbidity Burden Index were compared between older PWH and HIV-negative controls using the Mann–Whitney U test; the magnitude of the difference between groups was quantified using the r effect size. RESULTS:The 699 PWH and 304 HIV-negative controls were predominantly male (87.5% vs. 64.0%), white (86.3% vs. 90.0%) and had median ages of 57 and 58 years, respectively. Among PWH, the median (interquartile range) CD4 T-cell count was 624 (475, 811) cells/μl; 98.7% were on antiretroviral therapy. The median (interquartile range) ECI was 0 (0, 8) and 0 (−3, 1), Charlson Comorbidity Index was 2 (1, 5) and 1 (0, 1) and Comorbidity Burden Index 8.6 (2.2, 16.8) and 5.9 (0.6, 10.8), respectively. While all three indices were significantly higher in PWH than in controls (P