Abstract
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) affects not only adults, but also children, many of whom are infected in the perinatal period and suffer the consequences throughout their development. One of the areas of cognition frequently adversely affected by the presence of HIV is intellectual functioning. However, although conceptually akin to intelligence, executive functions encompass a wider range of abilities and skills. The purpose of this study was to determine if executive functions, as such, are impaired in children who are HIV infected. A sample of 60 children between the ages of 6 and 12 years participated in this study. The performance of 30 HIV infected children in an instrument designed for the assessment of executive functions in school age children (ENFEN) was compared with the performance of a group of 30 healthy controls, matched for age, gender, and socio-economic status. The results revealed impairments in HIV infected children across all executive functions assessed.
Highlights
There can be no doubt that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) represent a major concern for health care in the 21st Century
These findings indicate that HIV infected children have a decreased ability in accessing words by their meaning, another task used to assess executive functions
The findings of the present study demonstrated that HIV positive school age children present significantly lower scores in a number of tasks that make up the construct of executive functions
Summary
There can be no doubt that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) represent a major concern for health care in the 21st Century (del Palacio, Alvarez, & Muñoz Fernández, 2012). Both the diagnoses of HIV positive and AIDS are associated with cognitive impairments of. How to cite this paper: Pino Melgarejo, M. Among these intellectual functioning, both verbal and non-verbal, as well as attentional and fine motor processes have been identified (Hoare et al, 2012). A number of functions have been implicated, including processing speed, response inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility, planning, and attention (Laughton et al, 2013)
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