Let Women Talk — Sarah Feagan & Jenny Hoy
In this video episode of Let Women Talk, HIV community advocate Sarah Feagan speaks with Professor Jennifer (Jenny) Hoy — Director of HIV Medicine at The Alfred in Melbourne, Victoria, who presented at the 2019 Australasian HIV&AIDS Conference held in Perth on 17-19 September. Professor Hoy presented research findings from a clinical study which showed that switching from tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) to raltegravir (RAL) is not associated with weight gain over 96 weeks.
About the presentation
Integrase inhibitor (INSTI)-based antiretroviral therapy (ART) has been associated with unexplained weight gain. Minimal information has been presented regarding a switch to raltegravir-based ART in patients with an undetectable viral load. Professor Hoy is a co-investigator in a clinical research of 37 HIV-infected adults, which retrospectively evaluated serial weight data from a non-randomised study that evaluated changes in bone mineral density (BMD) over 96 weeks after switching from tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) 300mg daily to raltegravir 400mg twice daily.
Conclusions: In this virologically-suppressed population, switching from TDF to raltegravir 400mg twice daily resulted in an increase in bone mineral density without a change in weight. Weight change after baseline mainly reflected regression to the mean. Weight gain may not occur with switch to INSTI-ART in virologically suppressed individuals, and may not be associated with all INSTIs.
Related links
- Download the presentation Powerpoint [PDF]
- Find out about characteristics of Integrase Inhibitors (INSTI) from the ASHM Antiretroviral Guidelines
Find out about Let Women Talk
Let Women Talk is a NAPWHA community-led health literacy initiative where HIV community advocates incorporate their rich perspectives and diverse lived HIV experiences back into strengthening community health responses — where women design and develop the health content and interventions that they want to see and hear. The initiative is one of many activities forming part of the HIV Health Literacy Framework Project, a NAPWHA project supported through the funding of ViiV Healthcare Australia.
Hear other video episodes
In this series, Sarah Feagan reports back from the 2019 Australasian HIV&AIDS Conference aiming to translate research back into community practice.
- Let Women Talk — Episode 01 — Sarah Feagan & Deborah Bateson
- Let Women Talk — Episode 02 — Sarah Feagan & Mina John
- Let Women Talk — Episode 03 — Sarah Feagan & Janet Gare
- Let Women Talk — Episode 05 — Sarah Feagan & Diane Lloyd
- Let Women Talk — Episode 07 — Sarah Feagan & Kirsty Machon
- Let Women Talk — Episode 08 — Sarah Feagan & Carole Khaw
- Let Women Talk — Episode 09 — Sarah Feagan & Rebecca Houghton
- Let Women Talk — Episode 10 — Sarah Feagan & Melinda Hassall
- Let Women Talk — Episode 11 — Sarah Feagan & Shoshana Rosenberg
- Let Women Talk — Episode 12 — Sarah Feagan & Liz Duck-Chong
- Let Women Talk — Episode 13 — Sarah Feagan & Moira Wilson
- Let Women Talk — Episode 14 — Sarah Feagan & Allie Carter
Who’s in this interview?
Jennifer Hoy is the Director of HIV Medicine at The Alfred in Melbourne, Victoria. has over 30 years’ experience in HIV clinical research and patient care, and established the Clinical Research Unit at The Alfred. Prior to this, she established and directed the Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Unit from 1988-2008, building it into an internationally recognised research program. Professor Hoy has been co-principal investigator on five large studies investigating ARV therapy and bone loss, including the SMART (Strategies for Management of Antiretroviral Therapy) study and START (Strategic Timing of Antiretroviral Treatment) study on which she was the Principal Investigator for Australia.
Sarah Feagan is a queer women who has been living with HIV since 2008. She is the previous chair of Positive Women Victoria and has recently joined the team at Living Positive Victoria as a Peer Navigator. She also the Vice President of NAPWHA. Sarah is a co-facilitator of Phoenix for Women and the Positive Leadership Development Institute (PLDi). Sarah has unique approach to her advocacy and is inspired by the lived experience of the body positive to inform her practice. Sarah’s advocacy spans the from the grass roots all the way up to high level governance. She has a global outlook with a local focus to bringing the community along with her.
