Psychosocial Stress and Aging in HIV

The Syndemic of Stress and Aging in an HIV-infected Population

This study will begin to assess the association between perceived stress and enhanced aging in persons living with HIV (PLWH). The investigators suspect this relationship may be mediated by increased aging within the immune system and subsequent low-level inflammation that commonly leads to multiple illnesses and frailty as one ages. The findings from this study will identify potential diagnostic and therapeutic targets to improve the health of aging PLWH which could also apply to HIV-uninfected populations.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Stress, Psychological; Frailty; HIV; Aging
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Breathe2Relax

Detailed Description

While life expectancy has increased markedly for people living with HIV (PLWH), gains in expected years of life have come at a cost - earlier onset and greater frequency of age-associated comorbid conditions, such as osteoporosis, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease. Accumulated multi-morbidity is the likely cause of much higher than age-expected rates of frailty in PLWH. Perceived stress is prevalent in PLWH and, when present, associated with worse clinical outcomes, including poor engagement in HIV care, rapid progression to AIDS, and higher AIDS-related mortality. Stress is a well-documented risk factor for many illnesses that demonstrate early onset in PLWH, and perceived stress has been hypothesized to be a cause of aging itself. Nonetheless, the role of perceived stress in early-onset aging and age-related illness in PLWH is essentially unexplored. Investigating the interrelatedness of aging, perceived stress, and HIV may elucidate mechanism(s) that underlie a phenotype of premature aging and functional decline in HIV patients with implications for understanding fundamental mechanisms of stress and aging in HIV uninfected populations. The proposed randomized controlled study will estimate correlations between perceived stress and both aging and HIV-specific outcomes and will measure feasibility of a cell phone-delivered stress reduction intervention. Participants will complete structured interviews to measure cumulative life stress, perceived stress, intimate partner violence exposure (as a traumatic stressor), functional status, frailty, and potential covariates across the age spectrum in PLWH. Stress measures will be correlated with biomarkers known to be associated with functional decline in aging, HIV-uninfected populations. The findings from this exploratory R03, led by a New Investigator, will measure feasibility of mobile technology for stress reduction interventions and estimate correlations between perceived stress and markers of aging and HIV disease. The results will be used to determine sample sizes necessary to perform definitive studies to assess the link between perceived stress and a phenotype of premature aging, as well as interventional studies of stress modification to mitigate the onset of early multi-morbidity and functional decline. These findings can be applicable to both HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected populations.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 42
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • North Carolina
    • Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States, 27157
      • Wake Forest University Health Sciences

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 21 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• HIV positive serostatus
• Wake Forest ID clinic patient for at least 12 months
• prescribed ART for at least 6 months
• English fluency (cell phone app and some interview tools are only available in English)
• consistent access to a smartphone

Exclusion Criteria:

• ART-naive
• unable to perform functional measures
• recent (within 30 days) acute illness requiring medical therapy or hospitalization
• immunosuppressive agents (e.g. > 20 mg/d prednisone or equivalent, chemotherapy, biologic immune-modulating agents) in the last 6 months
• cancer requiring treatment within 3 years (except for non-melanoma skin cancer)
• use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs more frequently than once per week within the last 30 days.

Criteria iii-vi are necessary because of their effects on biomarkers of aging

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Usual care; Participants randomized to this arm will have no change to their usual care
Experimental: Cell phone app; Participants randomized to this arm will use a stress reduction cell phone app called "Breathe2Relax" to assess feasibility and acceptability	Behavioral: Breathe2Relax; The app teaches diaphragmatic breathing and has audiovisual coaching; Other Names: cell phone app

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Correlation of perceived stress with HIV virologic suppression	Measure perceived stress using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and calculate the correlation with HIV viral load	12 weeks
Correlation of perceived stress with immune senescence	Measure perceived stress using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and calculate the correlation with biomarkers of immune senescence, including IL-6, soluble CD-14, telomere length, and DNA methylation	12 weeks
Correlation of perceived stress with inflammation	Measure perceived stress using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and calculate the correlation with biomarkers of inflammation (C-reactive protein, salivary cortisol)	12 weeks
Correlation of perceived stress with frailty phenotype	Measure perceived stress using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and calculate the correlation with each participant's Fried Frailty Index score (comprised of 5 items, including weight loss, exhaustion, 4 meter walk time, physical activity, and grip strength).	12 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Feasibility of a stress-reduction cell phone app	This outcome will measure the accrual, adherence and retention of using a stress-reduction cell phone application in people aging with HIV through the randomized pilot study.	12 weeks
The effect of a cell phone app on stress-reduction	The study will collect preliminary data on the efficacy of a cell phone-based stress reduction intervention versus usual care for improving markers of inflammation and aging, as well as HIV-specific outcomes.	12 weeks
Acceptability of a stress-reduction cell phone app	An exit survey will measure the acceptability of using a stress-reduction cell phone application in people aging with HIV.	12 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Wake Forest University Health Sciences
• Collaborators: National Institute on Aging (NIA)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Katherine R Schafer, MD, Associate Professor

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: May 1, 2016
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 14, 2017
• Study Completion (Actual): November 14, 2017

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 4, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 11, 2016
• First Posted (Estimate): November 16, 2016

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 15, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 14, 2022
• Last Verified: July 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Pathologic Processes; Stress, Psychological; Frailty
• Other Study ID Numbers: IRB00033537; 1R03AG048033-01A1 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No