Association between alcohol consumption and human immunodeficiency virus infection

Several factors have been associated with HIV infection, but alcohol consumption has not been studied completely. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the association between alcohol consumption and HIV infection. A case-control study was undertaken with HIV-positive and HIV-negative patients, matched by sex and age (± 2 years). Latin-American Alcoholism Test (long version) was used to evaluate alcoholism diagnosis. A total of 198 cases were matched with 198 controls: 38.9% of cases were diagnosed as alcoholics, and only 22.7% of controls (p < 0.001). The multivariate model showed that economic income (p < 0.001), sexual orientation (p < 0.001), and alcoholism diagnosis (p < 0.001) were associated with HIV infection. This study demonstrates an association between alcohol consumption, homosexual practices between men and economic income with the prevalence of HIV infection.