Effects of Age, Level of Education and HIV Status on Cognitive Performance in West African Older Adults: The West Africa IeDEA Cohort Collaboration.

An in-depth understanding of the impact of aging, cognitive reserve, and HIV status on cognitive function is needed in older West African adults. Ninety-nine HIV-negative and 334 HIV-positive adults aged ≥ 50 years were enrolled in three clinics (Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire) participating in the IeDEA West Africa collaboration. All subjects underwent the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT) and the Isaacs Set Test (IST). Age (both linear and quadratic), education level, and HIV status effects on Z-scores were assessed using multivariate linear regression models. Interactions between HIV status and age or educational level were tested. In the present cohort of older West African adults, the role of age and educational level on episodic memory and verbal fluency was observed without revealing an interaction between HIV status and age effect. As age had quadratic effects, older HIV-positive adults should not be considered as a unique group irrespective of their age. Low-educated HIV-positive patients had the lowest verbal fluency performance compared to others. Further studies are needed to duplicate these results. In clinical settings, screening and adapted programs focusing on improving cognition in those patients are needed.

[Clinical, biological, therapeutic and evolving profile of patients with HIV infection hospitalized at Infectious and tropical diseases unit in Abidjan (Ivory Coast)]. / Profil clinicobiologique, thérapeutique et évolutif des patients infectés par le VIH hospitalisés au service des maladies infectieuses et tropicales d'Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire).

The objective of this study is to describe the clinical, biological, therapeutic and evolving current profile of hospitalized patients with HIV infection in the cohort of the Infectious and Tropical Diseases Unit (ITDU) in the aim to improve their care management. This is a retrospective study, conducted on medical data of hospitalized cases of patients with HIV infection in the ITDU at the teaching hospital of Treichville (Abidjan) from 2006 to 2007. During the two years, 447 patients were included in the study. Their average age was 39 years [18 years-86 years] and sex ratio was 0.69. Of the 447 patients, 35% were unemployed and 67% were new patients who had never undergone antiretroviral therapy (ART). The duration of drug exposure was less than 6 months in 59% of treated patients. The average time to initiate ART was seven weeks. Among naive patients 41.9% were lost to follow up, 35.9% were waiting for treatment and 22.1% waiting for baseline biological test to initiate ART. At the initiation of ART, 79.6% of patients had a CD4 count less than 200/mm(3). The reasons of hospitalization defining AIDS were dominated by tuberculosis (34.2%), cerebral toxoplasmosis (17.9%) and neuromeningeal cryptococcosis (8%). The main reasons of hospitalization in classifying non-AIDS were pyelonephritis (6.5%), bacterial pneumonia (5.4%) and undetermined infectious encephalitis (4.9%). Hospital mortality was 24.4%. The leading causes of death were tuberculosis (22.9%), cerebral toxoplasmosis (20.2%), undetermined infectious encephalitis (18.3%) and cryptococcal meningitis (13.7%). The profile of PLHIV in hospital is characterized by profound immunosuppression due to late diagnosis and high mortality associated with severe opportunistic infections and late initiation of ART.