Physical functioning in adolescents with perinatal HIV

ABSTRACT

Perinatal HIV impacts on growth and development in childhood, with physical impairments such as growth limitations, decreased physical activity, reduced exercise tolerance and cardiopulmonary dysfunction continuing into adolescence. There is limited data on other physical functioning domains in perinatally HIV-infected adolescents (PHIVA) thus the aim of this study was to establish the physical sequelae of perinatal HIV in adolescents. This South African cross-sectional study compared PHIVA with HIV-negative adolescents, assessing anthropometry, muscle strength, endurance and motor performance. All ethical considerations were adhered to. The study included 147 PHIVA and 102 HIV-negative adolescents, aged 10–16 years. The majority (87.1%) of PHIVA were virally suppressed however, they still showed significant deficits in height (p < 0.001), weight (p < 0.001) and BMI (p = 0.004). Both groups performed poorly in muscle strength and endurance but did not differ significantly. In motor performance, the PHIVA scored significantly lower for manual dexterity and balance, with significantly more PHIVA with motor difficulty. A regression analysis showed that viral suppression predicted muscle strength (p = 0.032) and age positively predicted endurance (p = 0.044) and negatively predicated aiming and catching (p = 0.009). In conclusion, PHIVA face growth deficits and challenges with motor performance, especially with manual dexterity and balance.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV
• physical functioning
• muscle strength
• endurance
• growth
• adolescence

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the hard work of the research assistants and all of the staff at the research site, as well as the participants and their caregivers, without whom this research would not have been possible. All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Nicolette Comley-White. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Nicolette Comley-White and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Ethics approval

Approval was obtained from the Human Research Ethics Committee (Medical) of the University of the Witwatersrand (M180226). The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Consent

All caregivers and children signed consent and assent respectively.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this study was obtained through the South African Society of Physiotherapy and the University of the Witwatersrand.