Prevalence of obesity and cardiovascular risk in patients with HIV/AIDS in Porto Alegre, Brazil

objective: the aim of this study was to discover the prevalence of overweight, obesity and cardiovascular risk in our hiv/aids outpatients according to sex, antiretroviral therapy and other variables. subjects and methods: patients underwent an anthropometric assessment. body mass index and waist circumference were used to classify their nutritional status and their cardiovascular risk. results: the majority of the 345 patients (58.8%) were males. obesity was detected in 8.3% of them; 34.2% were overweight, and 5.2% malnourished. near half of them (51.3%) had some cardiovascular risk, with increased risk in 24.6% of them, and substantially increased risk in 26.7% of them. conclusions: overweight and obesity were highly prevalent. women were more frequently obese (or = 3.53; ic 95%, 1.47 < or < 8.69), and their cardiovascular risk was often higher (or = 6.97; ic 95%, 4.16 < or < 11.76). the prevalence of obesity and cardiovascular risk did not change according to antiretroviral therapy or other variables.