Abstract:
Metabolic syndrome is a complication found in HIV/AIDs patients. The patients with metabolic syndrome had increased risk of cardiovascular disease. An appropriate dietary advice may help ameliorate this problem. This study aimed to investigate the effect of dietary advice on components of metabolic syndrome including anthropometric parameters, lipid profiles, fasting blood sugar, and blood pressure in the HIV/AIDs with metabolic syndrome who were on highly active antiretroviral therapy. This study was a randomized controlled trial. Sixty participants were randomly assigned into an intervention group (n = 30) and a control group (n = 30). All patients received the advice with the booklet about healthy diet for Thai people according to Thai nutrition flag, and only the intervention group additionally received the advice with the booklet providing the information about modified NEM diet which was derived from the dietary recommendations of National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III, European Aids Clinical Society Guidelines and Mediterranean diet and was appropriately modified for Thai HIV/AIDs patients. The participants were followed for 24 weeks. The results showed that the participants in the intervention group had significantly decreased weight at week 12 and week 24 when compared with baseline while BMI and WC were significantly decreased at week 24 when compared with baseline. They had significantly lower TG and FBS levels when compared with baseline (p = 0.008 and p < 0.001, respectively) and had significantly lower TG level than those in the control group at week 24 (p = 0.014). In addition, blood pressure, both systolic and diastolic, of the participants in the intervention group was significantly lower than those in the control group (p < 0.001 and p = 0.024, respectively). There were no changes in any parameters in the control group throughout the study. At the end of the study, the participants in the intervention group had decreased consumption of total calories, carbohydrate, fat, saturated fat, and sugar but had increased protein and dietary fiber intakes. Moreover, the number of participants with metabolic syndrome decreased after receiving dietary advice. This study indicated that such dietary advice could improve metabolic components in HIV/AIDs patients with metabolic syndrome. Therefore, it can be included in guidelines for management of metabolic syndrome in these patients.
