My career goal is to improve health outcomes for aging HIV-infected and at risk communities and to support the development of health promoting interventions tailored to socially marginalized, resource-constrained, and clinically vulnerable members of these communities. Frailty is an important age-related state of increased vulnerability to stressors that results in early death and a wide range of adverse age-associated clinical outcomes including increased hospitalization, disability, and institutionalization. Consequently, frailty has been identified by the Institute of Medicine as a top target priority are for health care improvement in the U.S. Early data have suggested an increased occurrence of frailty among aging HIV-infected persons. The epidemiologic and biological factors that determine transitions between frailty states (frailty progression and recovery) are not well-characterized. The proposed studies are nested in the AIDS Linked to the IntraVenous Experience (ALIVE) cohort, representing aging, minority injection drug users (IDUs) at the greatest risk for frailty-related consequences.
Aim 1 utilizes longitudinal ALIVE data to examine the role of HIV and multimorbidity on frailty progression and recovery among aging HIV-infected and epidemiologically comparable HIV-uninfected IDUs.
Aim 2 will longitudinally assess the relationship of inflammation-related biological markers with frailty transitions.
Aim 3 will determine the feasibilty and define optimal trial elements for a mobile health (mHealth) enhanced exercise intervention to improve frailty parameters among aging HIV-infected persons. The proposed career development plan will expand my technical skills through additional expertise in the following domains: (1) transition modeling and analysis of complex longitudinal data;(2) application of mHealth technologies to health behavior promotion;(3) design and implementation of physical activity interventions for resource-constrained, frail, aging HIV-infected persons. I will be well supported within the Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University and will benefit from the excellent research infrastructure of the ALIVE study and other centers and institutes at Johns Hopkins University. With increasing survival but increased risk of multimorbid disease among aging HIV-infected populations, research on the epidemiologic and biological aspects of aging with HIV have become an NIH priority. Frailty represents an important age-related syndrome of significant public health relevance to aging HIV-infected and at risk communities. This award will facilitate my pathway to an independent career as a patient-oriented clinical investigator committed to developing interventions to promote frailty recovery, prevent frailty progression, and minimize adverse frailty-related outcomes among aging HIV-infected persons.

Public Health Relevance

to aging HIV-infected and at risk communities. This award will facilitate my pathway to an independent career as a patient-oriented clinical investigator committed to developing interventions to promote frailty recovery, prevent frailty progression, and minimize adverse frailty-related outcomes among aging HIV-infected persons. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: HIV-infected persons are living longer, but many will still die earlier and experience frailty and more age-related disease than the general population. We seek to understand the clinical, biological and sociobehavioral factors responsible for the vulnerability of these groups to earlier death and poorer age-related quality of life. Knowledge gained from these studies will inform development of effective strategies to improve survival and quality of life for aging HIV-infected persons.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Type
Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23)
Project #
1K23AI108357-01
Application #
8603609
Study Section
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Research Review Committee (AIDS)
Program Officer
Huebner, Robin E
Project Start
2013-07-01
Project End
2017-06-30
Budget Start
2013-07-01
Budget End
2014-06-30
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2013
Total Cost
$182,779
Indirect Cost
$13,539
Name
Johns Hopkins University
Department
Internal Medicine/Medicine
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
001910777
City
Baltimore
State
MD
Country
United States
Zip Code
21218
Piggott, Damani A; Muzaale, Abimereki D; Varadhan, Ravi et al. (2017) Frailty and Cause-Specific Hospitalization Among Persons Aging With HIV Infection and Injection Drug Use. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 72:389-394
Keller, Sara C; Cosgrove, Sara E; Higgins, Yvonne et al. (2016) Role of Suppressive Oral Antibiotics in Orthopedic Hardware Infections for Those Not Undergoing Two-Stage Replacement Surgery. Open Forum Infect Dis 3:ofw176
Piggott, Damani A; Erlandson, Kristine M; Yarasheski, Kevin E (2016) Frailty in HIV: Epidemiology, Biology, Measurement, Interventions, and Research Needs. Curr HIV/AIDS Rep 13:340-348
Piggott, Damani A; Carroll, Karen C; Lim, Michael et al. (2016) Nontyphoidal Salmonellosis, Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection, and Ischemic Stroke. Open Forum Infect Dis 3:ofw104
Piggott, Damani A; Varadhan, Ravi; Mehta, Shruti H et al. (2015) Frailty, Inflammation, and Mortality Among Persons Aging With HIV Infection and Injection Drug Use. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 70:1542-7
Greene, Meredith; Covinsky, Kenneth; Astemborski, Jacquie et al. (2014) The relationship of physical performance with HIV disease and mortality. AIDS 28:2711-9