Gender inequalities in the response to combination antiretroviral therapy over time: the Swiss HIV Cohort Study. HIV Medicine
Rosin et al. compared treatment responses to combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) between genders in a setting of equal access to cART over a 14-year period. Men who have sex with men were excluded from the analysis. Women were less likely to achieve virological suppression at 1 and at 2 years. After adjustment for potential confounders, no major differences in virological suppression were observed between the sexes. In multivariate analysis, only non-white ethnicity was an independent risk factor for not achieving virological suppression. Overall, 48.2% of patients modified their initial cART regimen during the first year of treatment. Women were more likely to modify their treatment, even if pregnant women were excluded. Women showed a better immunological recovery at 1 year than men. The virological response and immunological recovery improved in both genders over time.
In conclusion, gender inequalities in the response to cART are mainly explained by the different prevalences of socio-economic characteristics in women compared with men.