ABSTRACT

HIV is a virus that damage the immune system, the immune system helps the body fight off infections. Untreated HIV infects and kill CD4cells which are a type of immune cell called T cells. Overtimes as HIV kills more CD4 cells the body is more likely to get various types of infections. This cross-sectional study was conducted to assess their dietary pattern, lifestyle, and anthropometric status of Adults living with HIV/AIDS attending out-patient clinic at Federal Medical Centre Umuahia, Abia State. One hundred and nine respondents were selected by simple random sampling techniques were each of the respondents has the same possibility of being chosen at any stage during the sampling Process by balloting without replacement from the antiretroviral therapy clinic in Federal Medical Center Umuahia Abia State. Their dietary pattern was assessed using 24 hours dietary recall were the respondents were asked to recall all food and drink taken in the previous twenty- four hours, lifestyle was studied using validated questionnaire and their anthropomentry measurement was taken with tape in cm. The data obtained were subjected to statistical analysis using the statistical package for social science version 23. The result showed that about 63.3% of the respondents were females while only 3 6.3% were males this may be due to female are more susceptible to HIV/AIDS infection and are especially in Africa and are less able to cope with due to cultural, social and economic factors. The result on BMI of the respondents showed that 47.7% of the respondents were of normal weight, 37.7% were overweight, 9.3% had obesity class 1 and 4.5% had class 11 obesity, it show that majority of the respondents adhere to their antiretroviral drugs because adherence lead to increase in weight, improvement in immunological status and increasedCD4counts. Result on waist and hip ratio shows that most 66.6% of females had very high waist and hip ratio than males. Dietary assessment results shows that the respondents consumed more of staple foods like rice, yam, garri, bread, pap and they had poor consumption of fruits and vegetables, these may be due to the fact that cereals constitute the most available staples in Nigeria, and also used in ample amount at household and industries.