Journal
CHILD CARE HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT
Volume 44, Issue 1, Pages 89-98Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/cch.12533
Keywords
cognitive development; HIV; AIDS; Malawi; physical functioning; quality of life; South Africa
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Funding
- Norad Sweden through HelpAge
- National Research Foundation, South Africa
- Lead Investigator of the Centre of Excellence in Human Development, University Witwatersrand, South Africa
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BackgroundChild development is negatively impacted by HIV with children that are infected and affected by HIV performing worse than their peers in cognitive assessments. MethodsWe conducted a descriptive follow-up comparison study (n=989) in South Africa and Malawi. We tracked child development in 135 HIV-positive children compared to 854 uninfected children aged 4-13years attending community-based organizations at baseline and again 12-15months later. ResultsChildren with HIV were more often stunted (58.8% vs. 27.4%) and underweight (18.7% vs. 7.1%). They also had significantly poorer general physical functioning (M=93.37 vs. M=97.00). HIV-positive children scored significantly lower on digit span and the draw-a-person task. ConclusionsThese data clearly show that HIV infection poses a serious risk for child development and that there is a need for scaled up interventions. Community-based services may be ideally placed to accommodate such provision and deliver urgently needed support to these children.
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