Sport and Self Esteem in Patients Living With HIV

Adapted athletic activity has shown benefits in patients with certain chronic diseases, including improving fatigue and pain in patients with cancer, and improving the symptoms of severe depression.

Among Patients Living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (PLHIV), sport appears to be less common than for people who do not live with HIV. In fact, 44% of PLHIV in a Swiss cohort (10,500 patients) were inactive in 2014, whereas this percentage was 26% in the general population in Switzerland. We did not find any French data on the prevalence of sports activity among PLHIV.

The benefits of sport in PLHIV are numerous: meta-analyzes on interventional studies of aerobic and resistance exercises show a significant improvement in maximum oxygen consumption, muscle strength, percentage of body fat, quality of life and symptoms of depression. An improvement in cognitive function was noted in a randomized study. An Iranian randomized study of 2017 showed an improvement in the CD4 count, after 8 weeks of resistive exercise, but two meta-analyzes of 2016 and 2017 did not find a significant change in CD4 or viral load with physical exercise.

On the other hand, several studies have shown that sports practice improves self-esteem. In addition, an Australian randomized study in 2006 showed an improvement in self-efficacy in PLHIVs after a six-month exercise (aerobic and resistance) program. Furthermore, self-esteem (defined as positive self-esteem) is a factor facilitating adherence to antiretroviral therapy.

The objective of this descriptive study is to evaluate the prevalence of sports activity in a French adult population infected with HIV and to seek an association with self-esteem. In addition, the investigators will look for an association between sport and fatigue, pain, sleep, lymphocyte T CD4 cell levels, viral load.