Table 2.
Prevalence of substance use (SU) among people living with HIV (PLWH) in Latin America.
| Country | Population | Definition of SU | Prevalence of SU | Study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brazil | PLWH (Bahia) | Alcohol use, current alcohol use | 42.4%, 38.5% | [99,100] |
| Illicit drug use | 4.9–11.5% | |||
| Alcohol and non-injectable illicit drug use | 11.8% | |||
| Smoking | 80.8% | |||
| PLWH with TB (Ceará) | Smoking | 33.5% | [182] | |
| History of alcoholism | 42.0% | |||
| History of illicit drug use | 26.5% | |||
| PLWH (Ceará) | Alcohol use disorder | 40.0–49.5% | [140,183] | |
| History of alcohol consumption | 44.8% | |||
| Alcohol use | 20.5% | |||
| Alcohol dependence | 19.0% | |||
| Risky alcohol consumption | 10.5% | |||
| Illicit drug use | 19.3% | |||
| Drug use | 12.7% | |||
| PLWH with HBV (Ceará) | IDU | 9.1% | [184] | |
| Inhaled cocaine use | 12.0% | |||
| Alcohol use | 36.0% | |||
| PLWH with HCV (Ceará) | IDU | 22.2% | ||
| Inhaled cocaine use | 16.7% | |||
| Alcohol use | 44.4% | |||
| PLWH (Espírito Santo) | Smoking | 22.6% | [21] | |
| Alcohol use | 32.8% | |||
| Illicit drug use | 4.5% | |||
| PLWH (Goiás) | Current, former smoking | 24.1%, 23.8% | [185] | |
| Risky consumption of alcohol | 71.4% | |||
| PLWH (Goiás) | Alcohol use | 41.8% | [114,186] | |
| Illicit drug use | 13.2–25.7% | |||
| PLWH (Minas Gerais) | Hazardous alcohol use (male, female) | 8.6%, 16.0% | [103] | |
| PLWH (Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro) | Previous smoking | 28.3% | [187] | |
| Current smoking | 37.6% | |||
| Past alcohol use | 35.0% | |||
| Current alcohol use | 57.7% | |||
| History of illicit drug use | 52.5% | |||
| Pregnant women with HIV with drug use history (Minas Gerais) | Drug use during pregnancy | 7.6% | [58] | |
| Smoking during pregnancy | 52.9% | |||
| Alcohol use during pregnancy | 30.6% | |||
| Smoking and alcohol use during pregnancy | 18.8% | |||
| Drug use prior to pregnancy | ||||
| Cocaine | 16.7% | |||
| Crack | 43.4% | |||
| Cocaine and crack | 8.3% | |||
| Marijuana | 15% | |||
| Cocaine, crack and marijuana | 8.3% | |||
| Other types of drugs | 8.4% | |||
| PLWH (Minas Gerais) | Alcohol use | 40.2–80.2% | [13,188,189] | |
| Smoking | 22.8–26.1% | |||
| Illicit drug use | 4.4–50.3% | |||
| PLWH with TB (Minas Gerais) | Alcoholism | 30.7% | [190] | |
| Illicit drug use | 23.5% | |||
| Smoking | 26.8% | |||
| PLWH (Pernambuco) | Smoking | 28.9–54.7% | [109,127,191] | |
| Alcohol use | 35.6% | |||
| Illicit drug use Marijuana Cocaine Crack Glue |
27.6% 26.6% 9.1–9.9% 6.5–6.7% 5.8% |
|||
| PLWH with pulmonary TB (Pernambuco) | Illicit drug use | 30.9% | [192] | |
| PLWH (Rio de Janeiro) | Smoking (lifetime, last 3 months) | 23.9–55.3%, 21–20.9% | [135,193,194] | |
| Alcohol use (lifetime, last 3 months) | 23.1%, 34.3% | |||
| Marijuana (lifetime) | 23.1% | |||
| Cocaine (lifetime) | 20.7% | |||
| Polysubstance (last 3 months) | 2.4% | |||
| PLWH with MDR TB (Rio de Janeiro) | Illicit drug use | 19.2% | [195] | |
| Women living with HIV (Rio de Janeiro) | Current or past smoking | 42.4% | [196] | |
| Lifetime illicit drug use | 16.6% | |||
| Men living with HIV (Rio de Janeiro) | Alcohol misuse | 34% | [113] | |
| Non-IDU | 76.7% | |||
| Pregnant women with HIV (Rio de Janeiro) | Illicit drug use (before, during pregnancy) | 18%, 6% | [95] | |
| Alcohol use (before, during pregnancy) | 51.3%, 14% | |||
| Smoking (before, during pregnancy) | 33%, 15% | |||
| PLWH (Rio Grande do Norte) | Smoking | 12% | [197] | |
| Alcohol use | 29% | |||
| Illicit drug use | 8% | |||
| Hospitalized PLWH (Rio Grande do Norte) | Smoking | 41% | [98] | |
| Alcohol use | 51% | |||
| Illicit drug use during week of admission | 31% | |||
| PLWH (Rio Grande do Sul) | Propensity for alcoholism | 37.5% | [12,94,123,198,199,200] | |
| Possible alcohol dependence | 5% | |||
| Alcohol (weekly use, use, harmful use, abuse) | 31.1%, 58.4%, 7.9%, 28.6% | |||
| Alcohol or drug use | 7.8% | |||
| Inhaled drug use | 33.1% | |||
| IDU | 13.9% | |||
| Smoking | 54.7% | |||
| People with AIDS (Rio Grande do Sul) | IDU | 12.2% | [39] | |
| PLWH attending Special Assistance Services (Rio Grande do Sul) | Smoking (abuse or addiction) | 45.6% | [134] | |
| Alcohol abuse or addiction | 32.7% | |||
| Other substance abuse or addiction | 15.7% | |||
| PLWH with TB (Rio Grande do Sul) | Alcoholism | 25.7–44.0% | [201,202] | |
| Smoking | 40% | |||
| Illicit drug use | 37.5% | |||
| Women living with HIV (Rio Grande do Sul) | History of drug use | 29.8% | [203] | |
| Mothers living with HIV (Rio Grande do Sul) | Drug use | 28.9% | [59] | |
| PLWH with oral lesions (Rio Grande do Sul) | Smoking | 30.7% | [204] | |
| Illicit drug use | 17.2% | |||
| Alcoholism | 14.4% | |||
| PLWH (Santa Catarina) | Smoking, current smoking | 45.9%, 32.1% | [131,205] | |
| Alcoholism, alcohol use | 13.3%, 31.1% | |||
| Illicit drug use | 10% | |||
| PLWH (São Paulo) | Alcohol use in last month (any amount, >1 time/week) | 50%, 16.9% | [73,120,126,206,207] | |
| Alcohol use, risky use, harmful use, abuse, dependence | 40.6%, 14%, 12.6%, 18.3%, 5.5% | |||
| Illicit drug use (in the last month) | 9.3–10% | |||
| SU (last month, last year) | 38%, 62% | |||
| Alcohol use during sex | 42.6% | |||
| Drug use during sex | 19.6% | |||
| PLWH without AIDS (São Paulo) | IDU (Pre-ART period, post-ART period) | 21%, 8% | [128] | |
| LGBT PLWH (São Paulo) | Drug use | 76.5% | [208] | |
| Women living with HIV (São Paulo) | Crack use | 3% | [22] | |
| Other drug use | 10% | |||
| TGW living with HIV (São Paulo) | Illicit or recreational drug use | 46% | [132] | |
| PLWH (multicentric) | Abusive use of alcohol (Recife, Goiania, Porto Alegre) | 22.8%, 26.3%, 5.6% | [115] | |
| Current smoking (Recife, Goiania, Porto Alegre) | 24.4%, 23.0%, 42.3% | |||
| Lifetime use of crack (Recife, Porto Alegre) | 6.0%, 8.9% | |||
| Lifetime use of cocaine (Recife, Goiania, Porto Alegre) | 9.0%, 10.7%, 29.6% | |||
| PLWH on ART (multicentric) | IDU (male, female, starting ART in 2006, starting ART in 2015) | 3%, 0.6%, 6.8%, 1,4% | [142] | |
| Non-IDU (female) | 23% | |||
| Women living with HIV (multicentric) | Smoking | 19.6% | [209] | |
| Illicit drug use | 18.7% | |||
| PLWH (nationwide) | Alcohol use | 49.5% | [210] | |
| Smoking | 45.3% | |||
| Amphetamines | 1.7% | |||
| Marijuana | 10.5% | |||
| Powder cocaine | 3.6% | |||
| Crack cocaine | 5.3% | |||
| Inhalants | 3.6% | |||
| Ketamine | 1.7% | |||
| Opioids | 1.7% | |||
| Ecuador | Newborns with HIV (Babahoyo) | Mothers using parenteral drugs | 38% | [23] |
| Peru | PLWH (Lima) | Current smoking | 16.6% | [14] |
| Current alcohol use, pathological use | 30.7%, 3.4% | |||
| Marijuana use (past, current) | 11.7%, 1% | |||
| Past cocaine paste use | 10.2% | |||
| Past cocaine use | 7.8% | |||
| Other past drug use (crack, poppers, terokal) | 1.4% | |||
| TGW living with HIV (Lima) | Hazardous alcohol use | 40% | [15] | |
| Harmful alcohol use | 2% | |||
| Alcohol dependency | 12% | |||
| Low drug use severity | 28% | |||
| Moderate drug use severity | 4% | |||
| Substantial or severe drug use severity | 6% | |||
| PLWH from tertiary care center (Lima) | Illicit drug use | 6.9% | [90] | |
| MSM and TGW living with HIV (Lima) | Alcohol use disorder | 28.0–43.2% | [24,211] | |
| Alcohol dependence | 3.9%–5.3% | |||
| Recent drug use | 6.0% | |||
| Low drug use severity | 20.2% | |||
| Moderate drug use severity | 5.3% | |||
| Substantial drug use severity | 1.7% | |||
| Mexico | PLWH (Jalisco) | Smoking | 60% | [18] |
| Alcohol use | 73% | |||
| Drug abuse | 59% | |||
| PLWH (San Luis Potosi) | Alcohol use (Male, Female) | 45%, 20% | [106] | |
| Drug use (Male, Female) | 21%, 3% | |||
| PLWH (Mexico City) | Illicit drug use | 20.7% | [25] | |
| Nicotine use | 24.3% | |||
| Recently pregnant women with HIV (Mexico City) | IDU, cocaine or heroin use | 0% | [17] | |
| Marijuana use | 2% | |||
| Inhaled solvent use | 26% | |||
| Current smoking | 20% | |||
| Alcohol use in last 6 months | 23% | |||
| PLWH (Puebla) | Drug or alcohol addiction | 30.6% | [112] | |
| Venezuela | PLWH (Valencia) | Inhaled drug use or IDU | 8.4% | [26] |
| Smoking 0.5 pack/year | 50% | |||
| Smoking 0.15 pack/year | 16% | |||
| Chile | PLWH (Araucanía, Metropolitan) | Drug use (Mapuche, other ethnicity) | 8.6%, 17.2% | [27] |
| Colombia | PLWH (Bogota) | Alcohol use | [28] | |
| ≤1 time/month | 55.8% | |||
| 2–4 times/month | 14.0% | |||
| 2–3 times/week | 2.3% | |||
| Smoking | 23.3% | |||
| Drug use | 7.0% | |||
| PLWH from a tertiary care center | Psychoactive substance use | 62% | [29] | |
| Argentina | Prisoners living with HIV (Buenos Aires) | Hazardous alcohol use | 23% | [20] |
| Alcohol dependence | 39% | |||
| SU in 30 days prior to incarceration | ||||
| Cocaine | 46% | |||
| Crack | 46% | |||
| Opioids | 2% | |||
| Benzodiazepines | 19% | |||
| TGW with HIV initiating ART (Buenos Aires) | Hazardous alcohol use | 52.5% | [19,139] | |
| Drug abuse | 13.1% | |||
| Cocaine use in past year | 52.5% | |||
| Marijuana use in past year | 54.1% | |||
| PLWH disengaged from HIV care (multicentric) | SU in last 6 months (TGW, cisgender) | 73.2%, 24.2% | [32] | |
| Cocaine in last 6 months (TGW, cisgender) | 76.7%, 24.2% | |||
| Substance-related problems (TGW, cisgender) | 39.0%, 10.3% | |||
| Hazardous alcohol use (TGW, cisgender) | 46.3%, 23.1% | |||
| PLWH reengaging in HIV care (multicentric) | Substance abuse | 19% | [31] | |
| Guatemala | PLWH attending an Infectious Diseases clinic (Guatemala City) | Smoking | 11.65 | [16] |
| Excessive alcohol consumption | 9.8% | |||
| Prior illicit drug use | 10.5% | |||
| Uruguay | PLWH who died from AIDS (nationwide) | History of drug use | 46.4% | [30] |
| History of IDU | 11.4% | |||
| Multi-country | PLWH (Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Santiago, Chile; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Mexico City, Mexico; Lima, Peru) | >3 drinks of alcohol in last 7 days | 13.7% (4.9–23.9%) |
[118] |
| Marijuana use in last 7 days | 4.1% (1.9–11.1%) |
|||
| Cocaine use in last 7 days | 1.4% (0.7–3.5%) |
|||
| Crack use in last 7 days | 0.3% (0.0–3.3%) |
|||
| Heroin use in last 7 days | 0.1% (0.0–0.6%) |
|||
| Any illicit drug use in last 7 days | 5.0% (2.8–14.0%) |
|||
| PLWH (Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Santiago, Chile; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Mexico City, Mexico; Lima, Peru) | Alcohol use only | 26.2% | [130] | |
| Non-IDU only | 2.1% | |||
| Alcohol + non-IDU | 3.5% |