Healthcare resource utilization and costs associated with renal, bone and cardiovascular comorbidities among persons living with HIV compared to the general population in Quebec, Canada

There is limited understanding on healthcare utilization and costs of age-related comorbidities such as cardiovascular, bone and renal disease/disorder in people living with human immunodeficiency virus, so we compared comorbidity prevalence and associated healthcare utilization and costs. Through the Quebec health insurance database, people living with human immunodeficiency virus on antiretroviral therapy for ≥6 months from January 2006 to June 2012 were categorized by their comorbidity status using International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-9 codes, and controls without human immunodeficiency virus diagnosis or antiretroviral therapy use were age and gender matched. We compared healthcare utilization and costs. A total of 3,905 people living with human immunodeficiency virus and 11,715 control individuals were included. The mean age of people living with human immunodeficiency virus was 45.3 years and 77.3% were men. Prevalence of comorbidities was higher and occurred earlier in people living with human immunodeficiency virus and increased with older age regardless of human immunodeficiency virus status. Interestingly, bone comorbidity was high (37%) and 5-fold greater in people living with human immunodeficiency virus <20 years than the controls. Polypharmacy and comorbidity scores were greater in people living with human immunodeficiency virus than controls (p<0.01), as were cardiovascular, bone and renal comorbidities (40.3%, 26.0% and 5.5%, respectively; p<0.01). People living with human immunodeficiency virus had higher healthcare utilization and costs than controls largely due to longer hospital stays and prescriptions. Mean total healthcare cost/person/year for people living with human immunodeficiency virus was CAD$6,248 and was highest for those with renal disease (CAD$19,617). Comorbidities in people living with human immunodeficiency virus are more prevalent, occur earlier and incur a higher burden on the healthcare system; earlier screening and improved preventative and management strategies may reduce the burden to people living with human immunodeficiency virus and to the healthcare system.