Assessment of Cardiovascular Health Knowledge, Preventive Practices and Cardio-protective Behavior among HIV-infected Individuals in Pune, India

This study is conducted under the TREAT Asia Network and funded by amfAR.

Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD) have become one of the leading causes of death among PLWH (People Living with HIV) across the globe. The burden that CVD will pose in the imminent future for the 2.1 million HIV-infected individuals in India is currently unclear. However given that Indians have a high occurrence of CVD at a young age, we posit that a comorbid CVD condition among the HIV-infected, would translate into diability-adjusted life years, greater than what we would see for any of the two diseases, if taken in isolation. Knowledge, environmental cues and personal beliefs play an important role in shaping health-related behaviors that individuals adopt.

The objective of this assessment is to understand some the factors that potentially affect health-related behaviors among the HIV-infected in Pune, when it comes to CVD.