Publication Abstract Display
Type: Published Abstract
Title: Effects of aging on neuropsychological functioning in people with HIV infection.
Authors: Cherner M, Heaton RK, Ellis RJ, Rivera Mindt M, Young C, Atkinson JH, Grant I, and the HNRC Group
Year: 2003
Publication: Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society
Volume: 9 Issue: 2 Pages: 162
Abstract:"The effects of aging on the presentation of HIV associated neurocognitive disorders are largely unknown. We compared the neuropsychological profiles of 67 HIV1 study participants who were at least 50 years old at the time of their assessment ( M 5 53, SD 5 3.8!, to those of 56 participants who were 35 years old or younger ( M 5 32, SD 5 3.2!. The older and younger groups did not differ statistically with respect to years of education, proportion of women or ethnic minority representation, percent with AIDS, or mean CD4 count. The younger group had higher mean viral burden in both plasma (4.1 vs. 3.2 log, p , .001) and cerebrospinal fluid (2.7 vs. 2.2 log, p , .01), and tended to have a greater proportion of subjects who were not receiving antiretroviral treatment (41% vs. 22% untreated, p 5 .08). Raw test scores in a comprehensive neuropsychological battery were converted to demographically corrected T scores as available for each measure; minimally, all scores were corrected for effects of normal aging. Clinical ratings of impairment were assigned to each participant's global performance as well as to 8 domains of cognitive functioning. The proportion of globally impaired subjects in the older group was 10% greater than in the younger group (64% vs. 54%), and the older group tended to have higher rates of impairment across most ability domains, but no differences reached statistical significance. Although further studies with larger and older-age samples are needed, the present results fail to detect an interaction between aging and HIV infection on neuropsychological performance. "

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