Assessment Of Dietary Pattern And Nutritional Status Of People Living With HIV/AIDS Attending Some Voluntary And Counselling Test (VCT) Units

This study assessed the dietary pattern and nutritional status of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) attending some voluntary and counseling test units in Kaduna metropolis.The studied subjects consisted of 74 adult patients infected with HIV between the ages of 18 and 60 years and 74 age-and-sexed-matched apparently healthy volunteers who were HIV negative as control group.A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect information on the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the subjects. Dietary diversity of the subjects and control were assessed using food frequency questionnaire. Blood serum total protein, total cholesterol, HDL and LDL cholesterol were determined spectrophotometrically while serum zinc and iron were measured using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. Result obtained shows that majority of patients (39.19%) were between 26 and 33years. A sizeable percentages of patients (33.78%) and control (52.7%) were overweight (BMI ≥ 25.00kg/m2), while some patients (25.68%) and control (37.93%) were under weight (BMI < 18.49kg/m2).