The role of vitamin D status on treatment outcome among HIV- infected children receiving care in Kisumu County, Kenya

BACKGROUND: Kenya has a paediatric HIV burden of nearly 140,000 children, of which only 48% of those on antiretroviral therapy (ART) have achieved the desired viral suppression possibly due to vitamin D deficiency. We explored the influence of vitamin D levels on treatment outcome. METHOD: We performed a cross-sectional study of 196 participants aged 3 – 14 years; among them 98 HIV infected who received treatment between 2019 – 2020 in Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital, Kenya. The exposure was vitamin D levels, including deficient (<20 ng/ml), insufficient (≥20 - <30 ng/ml), and sufficient (30 – 50ng/ml). The outcome was optimal immune recovery (CD4 ≥ 500 cells/mm3) and optimal viral suppression (viral load ≤ 200 copies/ml). We compared difference in means for each vitamin D category between HIV infected and uninfected using independent t-test, multiple comparisons of vitamin D levels among age categories using ANOVA and post hoc test and Pearson correlation to correlate vitamin D levels, CD4 and viral load of HIV infected children. RESULTS: Compared with HIV uninfected, HIV infected recorded mean age ± standard deviation of10.65±2.17 years with 39(39.8%) males vs. 6.68±2.81 years with 52(53.1%) males p<0.001; and the difference in vitamin D mean levels was statistically significant [28.21 ± 6.39 infected vs.30.88 ± 6.62 uninfected] t = 2.94, df =194, p = 0.004, 95%CI (0.90 – 4.59). Among age categories, mean vitamin D varied significantly F (2,193) = 10.68, p =0.001; with higher levels observed between 1–4 years category {mean difference 4.64ng/ml, p = 0.02, [95%CI 1.49 – 7.78]} and 5–9 years category {mean difference 4.33ng/ml, p = 0.001, [95%CI 1.89 – 6.38]} as compared to 10 – 14 years respectively. Additionally, children with optimal immune recovery recorded higher proportion of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency (12.24% and 42.86%) as compared with sub optimally recovered 1.02% and 4.08%); while children with optimal viral suppression recorded higher proportion of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency (8.16% and 30.61%) as compared with sub optimally suppressed (5.1% and 16.3%). CONCLUSION: Infections with HIV suppresses levels of vitamin D, but this has no influence on CD4 counts and viral load status in children receiving ART.