ArticleAIDS (London, England)2025
Psychosocial factors account for a proportion of the difference in cognitive performance between persons with and without HIV.
Article in AIDS (London, England), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Smoldering in the sanctuary: HIV-associated brain injury in the ART era.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2026Review
- The Changing Spectrum of Cognitive Impairment in People with HIV; Establishment and Updates of the International HIV-Cognition Working Group.Current HIV/AIDS reports · 2026Review
- Navigating the Data Gaps of Ageing Among Women Living With HIV.Journal of the International AIDS Society · 2026Article
- Episodic memory trajectories of older adults with and without HIV: A longitudinal population-based study in rural South Africa.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- The role of premorbid cognitive performance in the neuropsychological assessment of people with HIV in South Africa.PloS one · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
objectiveTo investigate whether psychosocial factors account for a proportion of the difference in cognitive performance between persons with and without HIV.
designCross-sectional study of 273 participants (178 persons with HIV) from a low income area of Cape Town, South Africa.
methodsParticipants completed comprehensive cognitive testing (7 domains) and 12 psychosocial measures (5 current: income, occupation, assets, accommodation, depressive symptoms, 7 from childhood: assets, quality of education, exposure to childhood trauma and violence, primary caregiver occupation and highest level of education), as well as demographic measures standard in cognition studies (age, sex, years of education). We investigated the HIV association with global cognitive performance after adjustment for standard demographic variables, exploratory psychosocial variables, and balancing characteristics of those with and without HIV using propensity score modelling.
resultsPersons with HIV had significantly lower scores than persons without HIV in 8/12 psychosocial variables. Of these, 7/12 significantly predicted global T-score. In unadjusted regression, HIV status was associated with a reduction in global T-score of 3.72 units. Adjustment for standard variables, reduced the effect of HIV on global T score by 26.9% to 2.72, additional adjustment for psychosocial variables reduced by 40.3% to 2.22, and adjustment for propensity scores by 42.7% to 2.13.
conclusionsPersons with HIV in this setting have lower psychosocial indices, both current and in childhood, which are associated with lower cognitive test performance as an adult. This is incompletely mitigated by adjustments for standard demographic variables which risks overestimation of cognitive impairment on a population level.
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