Award-winning AGEhIV presentations at IWHOD 2016

Congratulations to Mikaela Smit from Imperial College London on winning the young investigator award for best oral presentation at the 20^th International Workshop on HIV Observational Databases (IWHOD) in Budapest (7-9 April 2016). Her winning talk, entitled ‘Reduction in future burden of cardiovascular disease is larger by interventions targeting traditional cardiovascular risk factors compared to HIV-specific interventions: a modelling study’, was based on research into non-communicable diseases in ageing HIV populations using data from SHM and the AGE_hIV study. This modelling study aimed to assess the impact of traditional and HIV-specific cardiovascular interventions in the HIV-positive population in care in the Netherlands. The model predicted an increase in incidence of cardiovascular disease over the next decades and showed that cardiovascular intervention strategies will be able to reduce the otherwise rising number of serious cardiovascular events, with traditional cardiovascular interventions having a greater impact compared to HIV-specific interventions.

Another member of the AGE_hIV research team working on this topic, Rosan van Zoest, was awarded the prize for the best poster presentation for her poster entitled ‘Primary and secondary cardiovascular prevention is suboptimal in both HIV-infected and uninfected participants of the AGE_hIV cohort study’. In this work, the researchers aimed to identify common modifiable cardiovascular risk factors and to investigate the use of preventative cardiovascular medicines and attainment of targets set by Dutch cardiovascular risk management guidelines. HIV-positive individuals participating in the AGE_hIV cohort study had a higher predicted cardiovascular risk than comparable HIV-negative controls. Dyslipidaemia, physical inactivity, hypertension and smoking were the most prevalent cardiovascular risk factors both in HIV-positive and HIV-negative participants. Furthermore, the results showed that the management of blood pressure, lipids and use of cardiovascular preventative medication was suboptimal and can be much improved in both HIV-positive and HIV-negative individuals. SHM congratulates both Rosan and Mikaela on these prestigious recognitions of their work and looks forward to hearing more about their research in the future.