Thursday, September 17, 2015

Does Older Age Confer an Increased Risk of Incident Neurocognitive Disorders among Persons Living with HIV Disease?

This study aimed to determine the combined effects of age and HIV infection on the risk of incident neurocognitive disorders.

A total of 146 neurocognitively normal participants were enrolled at baseline into one of four groups based on age (≤40 years and ≥50 years) and HIV serostatus resulting in 24 younger HIV-, 27 younger HIV+, 39 older HIV-, and 56 older HIV+ individuals. All participants were administered a standardized clinical neuropsychological battery at baseline and 14.3 ± .2 months later.

A logistic regression predicting incident neurocognitive disorders from HIV, age group, and their interaction was significant (χ(2)[4] = 13.56, p = .009), with a significant main effect of HIV serostatus (χ(2)[1] = 5.01, p = .025), but no main effect of age or age by HIV interaction (ps > .10). Specifically, 15.7% of the HIV+ individuals had an incident neurocognitive disorder as compared to 3.2% of the HIV- group (odds ratio = 4.8 [1.2, 32.6]). Among older HIV+ adults, lower baseline cognitive reserve, prospective memory, and verbal fluency each predicted incident neurocognitive disorders at follow-up.

Independent of age, HIV infection confers a nearly fivefold risk for developing a neurocognitive disorder over approximately one year. Individuals with lower cognitive reserve and mild weaknesses in higher-order neurocognitive functions may be targeted for closer clinical monitoring and preventative measures.



  • 1a Department of Psychology , The University of Houston , Houston , TX , USA.
  • 2b Department of Psychiatry , The HIV Neurobehavioral Research Program, University of California , San Diego , CA , USA.
  • 3c Psychology Service , VA San Diego Healthcare System , San Diego , CA , USA.
  • 4d Department of Psychiatry , University of California , San Diego , CA , USA.
  • 5e Department of Psychology , San Diego State University , San Diego , CA , USA.
  • 6f SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology , San Diego , CA , USA. 

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