Characterization and sociocultural predictors of neuropsychological test performance in HIV+ Hispanic individuals. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Hispanic individuals in the U.S. have been disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS, yet little is known regarding the neuropsychological sequelae of HIV within the Hispanic population. This study characterized neuropsychological (NP) test performance of HIV+ English-speaking Hispanic participants (n = 51) and investigated the combined roles of sociocultural factors (e.g., ethnicity, socioeconomic status [SES] proxy, and reading level) on NP test performance among our HIV+ Hispanic and non-Hispanic White participants (n = 49). Results revealed that the pattern of NP impairment in HIV+ Hispanic participants is consistent with the frontal-striatal pattern observed in HIV-associated CNS sequelae, and the overall prevalence of global NP impairment was high compared to previous reports with more ethnically homogeneous, non-Hispanic White cohorts. Multivariate prediction models that considered both sociocultural factors and CD4 count revealed that reading level was the only unique predictor of global NP functioning, learning, and attention/working memory. In contrast, ethnicity was the only unique predictor of abstraction/executive functioning. This study provides support for the use of neuropsychological evaluation in detecting HIV-associated NP impairment among HIV+ Hispanic participants and adds to the growing literature regarding the importance of considering sociocultural factors in the interpretation of NP test performance.

publication date

  • October 1, 2008

Research

keywords

  • Cognition Disorders
  • Culture
  • HIV Infections
  • Hispanic or Latino
  • Neuropsychological Tests

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC2696232

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 57349143765

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1037/a0012615

PubMed ID

  • 18954167

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 14

issue

  • 4