Trial reportAIDS (London, England)2017
Improved quality of life with immediate versus deferred initiation of antiretroviral therapy in early asymptomatic HIV infection.
Trial report in AIDS (London, England), 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
58 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 92 citations in OpenAlex.
- Benefits and Risks of Rapid Initiation of Antiretroviral Therapy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Pooled it
- Evaluating B/F/TAF at the first HIV-specialist appointment in antiretroviral naive persons living with HIV: the bifast study.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Trial
- Trial
- A randomized comparison of health-related quality of life outcomes of dolutegravir versus efavirenz-based antiretroviral treatment initiated in the third trimester of pregnancy.AIDS research and therapy · 2022Trial
- The Impact of Immediate Initiation of Antiretroviral Therapy on Patients' Healthcare Expenditures: A Stepped-Wedge Randomized Trial in Eswatini.AIDS and behavior · 2021Trial
- An Interactive Voice Response Software to Improve the Quality of Life of People Living With HIV in Uganda: Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2021Trial
- High effectiveness of recommended first-line antiretroviral therapies in Germany: a nationwide, prospective cohort study.Infection · 2020Trial
- ART in HIV-Positive Persons With Low Pretreatment Viremia: Results From the START Trial.Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) · 2019Trial
- Highly diverse and anaerobe-dominated vaginal microbiota in women living with HIV: a cross-sectional study.Infection · 2026Article
- What are the key targets to improve quality of life among MSM living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy? A network analysis.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Association between differentiated HIV care delivery model and low-level viremia among people living with HIV in Rwanda.AIDS research and therapy · 2024Article
- Review
- Observational
- HIV-infected Latin American asylum seekers in Madrid, Spain, 2022: A prospective cohort study from a major gateway in Europe.Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin · 2024Article
- Plasma Levels of Secreted Cytokines in Virologically Controlled HIV-Infected Aging Adult Individuals on Long-Term Antiretroviral Therapy.Viral immunology · 2024Article
- Changes in Adherence and Viral Load Suppression Among People with HIV in Manila: Outcomes of the Philippines Connect for Life Study.AIDS and behavior · 2024Article
- Pulmonary Function and Quality of Life in Aging Men With and Without HIV from the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study.AIDS research and human retroviruses · 2023Article
- Impaired gut microbiota-mediated short-chain fatty acid production precedes morbidity and mortality in people with HIV.Cell reports · 2023Article
- The effect of universal testing and treatment for HIV on health-related quality of life - An analysis of data from the HPTN 071 (PopART) cluster randomised trial.SSM - population health · 2023Article
- Risk of HIV Viral Rebound in the Era of Universal Treatment in a Multicenter Sample of Persons With HIV in Primary Care.Open forum infectious diseases · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 6 institutions in 6 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo determine if immediate compared to deferred initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in healthy persons living with HIV had a more favorable impact on health-related quality of life (QOL), or self-assessed physical, mental, and overall health status.
designQOL was measured in the Strategic Timing of Antiretroviral Therapy study, which randomized healthy ART-naive persons living with HIV with CD4 cell counts above 500 cells/μl from 35 countries to immediate versus deferred ART.
methodsAt baseline, months 4 and 12, then annually, participants completed a visual analog scale (VAS) for 'perceived current health' and the Short-Form 12-Item Health Survey version 2 from which the following were computed: general health perception; physical component summary (PCS); and mental component summary (MCS); the VAS and general health were rated from 0 (lowest) to 100 (highest).
resultsQOL at study entry was high (mean scores: VAS = 80.9, general health = 72.5, PCS = 53.7, MCS = 48.2). Over a mean follow-up of 3 years, changes in all QOL measures favored the immediate group (P < 0.001); estimated differences were as follows: VAS = 1.9, general health = 3.6, PCS = 0.8, MCS = 0.9. When QOL changes were assessed across various demographic and clinical subgroups, treatment differences continued to favor the immediate group. QOL was poorer in those experiencing primary outcomes; however, when excluding those with primary events, results remained favorable for immediate ART recipients.
conclusionIn an international randomized trial in ART-naive participants with above 500 CD4 cells/μl, there were modest but significant improvements in self-assessed QOL among those initiating ART immediately compared to deferring treatment, supporting patient-perceived health benefits of initiating ART as soon as possible after an HIV diagnosis.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.