While people living with HIV do experience higher rates of age-related diseases, they do not experience them at younger ages than HIV-negative people. Publishing their findings in Clinical Infectious Diseases, researchers analyzed data from almost 100,000 HIV-positive and HIV-negative adults in the Veterans Aging Cohort Study from April 1, 2003 to the end of 2010 to compare the ages at which each group was diagnosed with heart attacks, kidney failure and non-AIDS-defining cancers (NADCs).

The HIV-positive people were diagnosed with kidney failure an average six months earlier in life than the HIV-negative people. There was no statistically significant difference in the age of diagnosis of heart attacks or NADCs between the two groups.

The study joined previous research in finding that people living with HIV are at higher risk of all these age-related diseases. However, the magnitude of the increased risk was smaller than has previously been found, perhaps because this study was able to adjust for a multitude of factors including race, sex, obesity, tobacco use, diabetes and depression.

To read the press release, click here.