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Injecting drug use worsens the quality of life in HIV-HCV co-infected patients in Vietnam
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  • Published: 09 April 2026

Injecting drug use worsens the quality of life in HIV-HCV co-infected patients in Vietnam

  • Yoann Madec1,
  • Hanh Thi Hong Ngo2,
  • Tram Thi Phuong Pham2,
  • Nhung Thi Hong Le2,
  • Ha Thi Thu Nguyen2,
  • Jennifer Ilo van Nuil3,4,
  • Trang Trong Chu5,
  • Du Dinh Pham5,
  • Hieu Minh Tran6,
  • Hung Manh Lai6,
  • Linh Thi Thuy Doan7,
  • Tuan Anh Nguyen2,
  • Lan Trong Phan2 &
  • …
  • Thang Hong Pham2 

Scientific Reports , Article number:  (2026) Cite this article

We are providing an unedited version of this manuscript to give early access to its findings. Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing. Please note there may be errors present which affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply.

Subjects

  • Diseases
  • Health care
  • Medical research
  • Psychology

Abstract

In Vietnam, in 2024, the HIV prevalence was estimated at 0.4% accounting for approximatively 270,000 adult people living with HIV (PLHIV). PLHIV may also face hepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infection, although co-infection disproportionally affects people who inject drugs (PWID). It has been shown that usually, PLHIV have lower health-related quality of life (HRQoL) than HIV-negative individuals. This study, focusing on HIV-HCV co-infected individuals on antiretroviral therapy (ART), offers the opportunity to investigate their HRQoL and compare PWID to non-PWID. The MOVIDA Hep 2 project, a prospective cohort study, enrolled HIV-HCV co-infected patients on ART in Vietnam. At enrolment, the HRQoL in the cohort was assessed using the EQ-5D-5L standardized scale. Low self-rated HRQoL was defined as providing a score below the 25th percentile. Factors associated with this outcome were identified using mixed-effects logistic regression models. A total of 343 HIV-HCV co-infected participants were enrolled in the study, of whom 249 (72.6%) were PWID. Participants were on ART for 116 months in median. Overall, 62 (18.1%) participants reported pain/discomfort and 42 (12.2%) reported anxiety/depression, the proportions did not differ by PWID status (p=0.85 and p=0.07, respectively; Fisher exact test). However, when self-rating their HRQoL, PWID gave a significantly lower score (p<0.001). Factors associated with low self-rated HRQoL were PWID status, ethnicity and alcohol consumption as well as reporting pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression.  Interestingly, PWID self-rated their HRQoL at a lower level than non-PWID despite similar long the duration of ART (around 10 years in median) in both groups. Our results suggest that PWID face more physical and psychological distress. The extent of such problems is difficult to ascertain, but screening patients to identify those who need more specific support or attention would be beneficial. Offering integrated mental health screening and care could also benefit these patients, but then the question of integrating mental health care in the national health insurance must also be questioned or addressed.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

APRI:

Aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index

ART:

Antiretroviral therapy

BMI:

Body mass index

FIB-4:

Fibrosis-4

HBV:

Hepatitis B virus

HCV:

Hepatitis C virus

HIV:

Human immunodeficiency virus

IQR:

Inter quartile range

MSM:

Men who have sex with men

OR:

Odds ratio

PLHIV:

People living with HIV

PWID:

People who inject drugs

QoL:

Quality of life

VAS:

Visual analog scale

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Acknowledgements

We thank all participants and the clinical staff involved in data collection, whose contributions were essential to this study.

Funding

This work was supported by ANRS | Maladies infectieuses émergentes (ANRS | MIE), France. The funder had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Epidemiology of emerging diseases unit, Institut Pasteur, Université de Paris, Paris, France

    Yoann Madec

  2. HIV department, National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Hanh Thi Hong Ngo, Tram Thi Phuong Pham, Nhung Thi Hong Le, Ha Thi Thu Nguyen, Tuan Anh Nguyen, Lan Trong Phan & Thang Hong Pham

  3. Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    Jennifer Ilo van Nuil

  4. Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Jennifer Ilo van Nuil

  5. Center for diseases control Yen Bai province, Yen Bai City, Vietnam

    Trang Trong Chu & Du Dinh Pham

  6. Center for diseases control Nghe An province, Vinh, Vietnam

    Hieu Minh Tran & Hung Manh Lai

  7. Vietnam Administration for Disease Prevention, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Linh Thi Thuy Doan

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Contributions

YM, NAT and PHT participated in the design of the study protocol, YM, PHT, HTHN and JIVN wrote the manuscript, HTHN, TTPP, NHHL, HTTN, LTTD, NAT, LTP and PHT supervised the implementation of the study, TTC, DPP, HMT and HML supervised data collection, YM performed the analysis of the data. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yoann Madec.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethic approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) from Institut Pasteur (Paris, France) and National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIE) (Hanoi, Vietnam). All participants provided signed informed consent.

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Madec, Y., Ngo, H.T.H., Pham, T.T.P. et al. Injecting drug use worsens the quality of life in HIV-HCV co-infected patients in Vietnam. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-46919-7

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  • Received: 20 November 2025

  • Accepted: 28 March 2026

  • Published: 09 April 2026

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-46919-7

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Keywords

  • HIV
  • Hepatitis C
  • People who inject drugs, heath-related quality of life
  • Depression
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