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The POPPY Study was started in 2013 as the first large-scale study to assess clinical outcomes of people living with HIV (PLWH) over the age of 50 in England and Ireland.
Project Summary
Discussions around the management of HIV as a long-term chronic disease have been ongoing since the mid-1990s when the impressive benefits of antiretroviral therapy (ART) became apparent.
Recent studies have suggested that people living with HIV may experience a speeding up of the aging process, with reports of increases in the rates of several co-morbidities, including cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancers, and end-stage liver and renal disease.
The cohort includes participants from 8 clinics, seven of which are in the UK, and one of which is in Ireland. The cohort includes three specific groups of people:
- 699 people with HIV aged >50 years;
- 374 people with HIV aged <50 years; and
- 304 people without HIV aged >50 years.
The group of older people with HIV were selected in such a way as to ensure that this older cohort is broadly representative of older people with HIV in the UK and Ireland.
The group of younger people with HIV and the group without HIV were then selectively recruited to ensure that they had similar demographic and lifestyle characteristics to the older people with HIV. This helps to ensure that our findings are as robust as possible.
Findings from the study are helpful for the development and implementation of evidence-based recommendations for the management and clinical monitoring of older people with HIV.
Study results have also contributed to the design of future studies for the treatment of diseases associated with ageing in this population.