Smoking habits in HIV-infected people from Italy: a cross-sectional analysis of the STOPSHIV cohort.

In a nationwide Italian sample of people living with HIV (PLWH), the prevalence of smoking, nicotine dependence, propensity to stop smoking and cardiovascular profile were investigated. The nicotine dependence by Fagerström-test, and the propensity to stop according to the stages of change were evaluated. Associations between smoking habits and patients' characteristics were analyzed using an unconditional logistic regression model. Among 1,087 PLWH (age 47.9±10.8 years, male 73.5%) the prevalence of current smokers was 51.6%. The median of Fagerström-test was 4 (interquartile range 2-6); 60.1% of the smokers were in the pre-contemplation, 17.6% in contemplation, 18.7% in preparation and 3.6% in action. In a logistic multivariate model, current smoking was associated with male sex, being divorced/widowed, Caucasian ethnicity, dyslipidemia, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk, psychiatric comorbidity, HCV-infection and alcohol abuse. Low HDL-cholesterol level was associated with high nicotine dependence. More than 50% of PLWH, were current smokers, 1/3 of them showed a high or very high degree of dependence. Our findings draw attention to the need of smoking cessation strategies for PLWH.