Women living with HIV and type 2 diabetes do not typically have good control of the latter condition, aidsmap reports.

Publishing their findings in Open Forum Infectious Diseases, researchers studied data from 2001, 2006 and 2015 on 486 HIV-positive women and 258 HIV-negative women with type 2 diabetes who participated in the Women’s Interagency HIV Study.

The study authors defined proper control of diabetes as having a hemoglobin A1c below 7.0 percent, blood pressure below 140 over 90, LDL cholesterol below 100 and not smoking.

In 2001, 91.8 percent of the women visited a health care provider, 60.7 percent achieved the A1c target, 70.5 percent achieved the blood pressure target, 38.5 percent achieved the LDL cholesterol target and 49.2 percent were nonsmokers. All told, 23.3 percent achieved the combined three targets of A1c, blood pressure and cholesterol, and just 10.9 percent met those three targets and did not smoke.

There were no significant differences among these rates based on the women’s HIV status. The 2006 and 2015 rates showed similar patterns.

Among the women with HIV, 41 percent had a fully suppressed viral load in 2001, a figure that increased to 87 percent in 2015. During this period, the rate of those who achieved the triple diabetes targets and were nonsmokers increased from 8 percent to 13 percent. There was no association between achieving viral suppression and meeting the triple diabetes target plus being a nonsmoker.

“Successful management of HIV is outpacing that of diabetes,” the study authors concluded. “Future studies are needed to identify factors associated with gaps in the HIV-diabetes care continuum and design interventions to better integrate effective diabetes management into HIV care.”

To read the aidsmap article, click here.

To read the study, click here.