LAUSR

OBJECTIVE We aimed to assess the effectiveness of first-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimens in achieving viral suppression at 12 months, from 2014 to 2017 in Brazil. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study utilizing programmatic data from the Brazilian HIV Program. METHODS Adults (aged 15-80 years) who started ART from January/2014 to July/2017 and had a viral load 365 (±90) days after treatment initiation were included. Associations with achieving viral suppression (<50 copies/mL) at 365 (±90) days were assessed using logistic regression. Our main study variable was ART regimen, and covariates included year of ART initiation, sex/exposure group, age, education, race, region, baseline CD4 and viral load counts, and adherence measured by pharmacy refill data. We performed both intent-to-treat and per-protocol-analogous analyses. RESULTS Of 107,647 ART-naïve patients, 71.5% initiated with tenofovir/lamivudine/efavirenz (TLE) and 10.5% with tenofovir/lamivudine/dolutegravir (TLD). Median age and CD4 counts were 34 (IQR 26-46) and 379 cells/mm (IQR 190-568), respectively; 68.0% were males. Viral suppression by 12 months was 84.0% (95%CI 83.7%-84.2%) with TLE and 90.5% (95%CI 90.0%-91.0%) with TLD, and below 80% for protease-inhibitor-based-regimens. In the multivariable intent-to-treat-analogous analysis, controlling for cofactors related to viral suppression including adherence, the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for TLD's viral suppression relative to TLE was 1.56 (95%CI 1.40-1.75). Findings were robust to secondary per-protocol-analogous and sensitivity analysis. CONCLUSION Our results showed the superiority of dolutegravir- over efavirenz- and protease-inhibitor- based regimens in suppressing viral replication in a real-word cohort of HIV-positive adults. This superiority was not driven by higher levels of adherence with dolutegravir-based regimens.