The extent of channelling bias when assessing the impact of antiretrovirals on cardiovascular events in HIV-positive pat

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HIV-positive patients are usually treated with a combination of drugs known as highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). HAART has led to dramatic decreases in the number of patients dying from HIV and AIDS. However, some of these drugs can cause severe side effects, including heart disease. It is not known whether some drugs are more likely to cause this than others. When comparing the rate of heart disease in those receiving different drugs, we must remember that patients prescribed a particular drug may differ from those prescribed another drug. Patients already at high risk of heart disease (because of their age, sex, or family history) may be selectively given drugs that are not thought to be linked to heart disease. Also, these patients may have more regular cholesterol tests than those thought to be at lower risk. As many approaches to the analysis of these data rely on the fact that similar amounts of information are available from all patients, there is a potential that the results may be unreliable. The aim of this project is to investigate methods that can give a reliable assessment of whether different HIV drugs have a different effect on the development of heart disease.