Project overview
Cognitive impairment is a common issue affecting people with HIV and is likely to become increasingly prevalent as this population ages.
People with both HIV and cognitive impairment have been shown to have particularly poor health-related quality of life (HRQL); poorer than those living with HIV without cognitive disorders and poorer than non-HIV populations accessing dementia services. People with HIV and cognitive impairment report stress and anxiety around remembering to take their daily combined-antiretroviral therapy (cART), and their lower HRQL is due, in part, to concerns around taking medications along with the consequences of poor adherance.
As the number of older people living with HIV increases, new strategies are needed to ensure that patients who might be at risk of forgetting to take oral medications or finding remembering to take oral medication stressful, are able to maintain complete viral HIV suppression. Long-acting injectable cabotegravir and rilpivirine (CAB+RPV) cART has been approved by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) and represents a paradigm shift in HIV treatment. It is administered in clinic, once every two months, and may be particularly beneficial to certain populations given its potential to facilitate medication adherence and improve factors associated with quality of life.
To develop our knowledge of the how injectable CAB+RPV cART can impact HRQL and cognition in people with HIV and cognitive impairment, this mixed-method cohort study will capture patient-reported data and cognitive assessment results from people with HIV and cognitive impairment who choose to switch their cART regimen to injectable CAB+RPV. All participants will be invited to complete HRQL and treatment satisfaction questionnaires at three different timepoints throughout the year-long study. Cognitive assessments will also be conducted at the beginning and end of the study for each participant. Additionally, all participants will be invited to take part in in-depth interviews so we can capture the experiences of individuals on this therapy and better understand their perceptions of injectable CAB+RPV.