There are over 3 million people in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) aged 50 and over living with HIV. HIV and combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) exposure may accelerate the ageing in this population, and thus increase the prevalence of premature frailty. There is a paucity of data on the prevalence of frailty in an older HIV + population in SSA and screening and diagnostic tools to identify frailty in SSA. Patients aged ≥ 50 were recruited from a free Government HIV clinic in Tanzania. Frailty assessments were completed, using 3 diagnostic and screening tools: the Fried frailty phenotype (FFP), Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) and Brief Frailty Instrument for Tanzania (B-FIT 2). The 145 patients recruited had a mean CD4 + of 494.84 cells/µL, 99.3% were receiving cART and 72.6% were virally suppressed. The prevalence of frailty by FFP was 2.758%. FFP frailty was significantly associated with female gender (p = 0.006), marital status (p = 0.007) and age (p = 0.038). Weight loss was the most common FFP domain failure. The prevalence of frailty using the B-FIT 2 and the CFS was 0.68%. The B-FIT 2 correlated with BMI (r = − 0.467, p = 0.0001) and CD4 count in females (r = − 0.244, p = 0.02). There is an absence of frailty in this population, as compared to other clinical studies. This may be due to the high standard of HIV care at this Government clinic. Undernutrition may be an important contributor to frailty. It is unclear which tool is most accurate for detecting the prevalence of frailty in this setting as levels of correlation are low.

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To investigate the relationship between vitreomacular traction (VMT) width, foveal floor width (FFW) and other anatomical characteristics between eyes of patients with VMT. Retrospective observational study of unilateral and bilateral VMT cases from two specialist ophthalmic centres in the United Kingdom (UK) between 2016 and 2018. For unilateral VMT cases: VMT width in the affected eye and FFW in the non‐affected fellow eye were measured. In bilateral VMT cases: VMT width in both eyes was measured. In all cases, the presence of any associated inner or outer retinal, and vitreoretinal interface (VRI) changes, including epiretinal membrane, was also documented. 88 patients fulfilled the study criteria: 57 having unilateral and 31 bilateral VMT. For unilateral VMT cases, log (VMT) width was significantly correlated with FFW (r = 0.347, p = 0.008). Using stepwise linear regression, FFW (p = 0.004) and VRI changes (p = 0.03) were both significantly associated with VMT width with a R2 of 0.21. In bilateral VMT cases, there was strong positive correlation between log (VMT) width (r = 0.88, p < 0.001), and the presence of any VRI (r = 0.90, p < 0.001) or outer retinal changes (r = 0.50, p < 0.001) between the two eyes. These findings suggest that individual variations in foveal morphology as measured by the FFW, along with the presence of vitreoretinal interface changes, are associated with the extent of VMT width. VMT width, VRI and outer retinal changes were also highly correlated between eyes in bilateral VMT, suggesting that individual patient factors, which may be genetic or acquired, determine their presence and extent.

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