Tobacco Cessation for People Living with HIV
Welcome to the Quit4Life+ Study
Quit4Life+ is a collaborative research program focused on improving tobacco cessation for people living with HIV in Uganda and Zambia. The project brings together intervention development, a randomized controlled trial, implementation science, stigma research, stakeholder engagement, and capacity building to better understand not only what works, but how effective tobacco cessation services can be integrated into real-world health systems and sustained over time.
24%
of AIDS-related deaths are attributable to smoking
80%
of the world's 1.3b tobacco users live in low- and middle-income countries
50%
of tobacco users who do not quit will die from tobacco-related causes
#1
tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide
While AIDS-related morbidity and mortality among people living with HIV (PLWH) have decreased with the introduction of combination antiviral therapy (ART), HIV continues to kill nearly 1 million people annually, the majority of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa. Tobacco use among PLWH contributes substantially to the HIV burden, with nearly a quarter of AIDS-related deaths attributable to smoking.
While there is substantial evidence supporting interventions to help tobacco users in the general population quit, little is available relevant to the challenges facing HIV+ tobacco users, especially those living in low- and middle-income African countries, including higher rates of depressive symptoms, greater use of alcohol and illegal substances, lack of awareness about tobacco’s effects on HIV treatment, and social isolation resulting from HIV stigma.