The Association Between HIV Infection and Alcohol Use: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of African Studies.

The article discusses the systematic review of the scientific literature and a meta-analysis of the reported risks associated with alcohol use and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to quantify the association between the alcohol drinking behavior and HIV infection in Africa. The study has observed evidence of a strong relationship between alcohol use and HIV infection wherein drinkers have a 70% greater chance of being HIV positive when compared with nondrinkers in the bivariate case and a 57% increased risk of HIV infection when potential confounders were controlled in multivariate analysis. Furthermore, it confirmed that alcohol is an important risk factor for HIV infection in Africa.