Alcohol Use and Food Insecurity Among People Living with HIV in Mbarara, Uganda and St. Petersburg, Russia

Food insecurity (FI) is a documented problem associated with adverse health outcomes among HIV-infected populations. Little is known about the relationship between alcohol use and FI. We assessed whether heavy alcohol use was associated with FI among HIV-infected, antiretroviral therapy (ART)-naïve cohorts in Uganda and Russia. Inverse probability of treatment weighted logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association using cross-sectional baseline data. FI was experienced by half of the Russia cohort (52 %) and by a large majority of the Uganda cohort (84 %). We did not detect an association between heavy alcohol use and FI in either cohort (Russia: AOR = 0.80, 95 % CI 0.46, 1.40; Uganda: AOR = 1.00, 95 % CI 0.57, 1.74) or based on the overall combined estimate (AOR = 0.89, 95 % CI 0.60, 1.33). Future studies should explore the determinants of FI in HIV-infected populations to inform strategies for its mitigation.