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AIDS Care
Psychological and Socio-medical Aspects of AIDS/HIV
Volume 28, 2016 - Issue 5
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Articles

The relationship between cognitive reserve and the clinical stage of HIV infection

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Pages 633-638 | Received 05 Aug 2015, Accepted 23 Nov 2015, Published online: 29 Dec 2015
 

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study was to determine whether the effect of cognitive reserve (CR) on neuropsychological functioning differs according to the clinical stage of HIV infection. A sample of 34 HIV-positive individuals aged 23–49, with a minimum of 9 years of formal education, was assessed. Participants were grouped according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) clinical stages (A = 10, B = 16, C = 8). CR was calculated for each clinical stage group in accordance with estimates of premorbid IQ, years of education, and occupational attainment. The sum of these three variables was then transformed into z-scores. Individuals above the median were classified as having “High” CR (HCR), those below the median were classified as “Low” CR (LCR). Participants completed an evaluation of cognitive and executive functions based on selected, modified tasks from the HIV University of Miami Annotated Neuropsychological test in Spanish (HUMANS). Assessment included the following domains: attention, memory (visual, verbal, and working memory), executive functions (cognitive flexibility, switching), language (naming), and visual constructive skills (block design). HCR outperformed LCR in all cognitive domains. Comparison of HCR and LCR in each clinical stage revealed that the effect of CR was stronger in stage B than in stages A and C, suggesting that this effect does indeed vary among stages.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT) under the Scholarship #29005 awarded to J. Pablo Alvarez-Tostado.

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