Longitudinal psychomotor speed performance in human immunodeficiency virus-seropositive individuals: impact of age and serostatus

Older human immunodeficiency virus seropositive (HIV+) individuals (greater than age 50 years) are twice as likely to develop HIV dementia compared to younger HIV+ individuals The objective of this study was to examine the impact of both age and serostatus on longitudmal changes m psychomotor speed/executive functioning performance among HIV+ and HIV individuals Four hundred and seventy seven HIV+ and 799 HIV individuals from the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) were subdivided into three age groups (1) <40 years, (2) 40-50 years, and (3) >50 years Psychomotor speed/executive functioning test performance was measured by the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) and the Trail Making (TM) Test Parts A and B Changes in performance were compared among the three age groups for both HIV+ and REV indivi duals Among HIV+ individuals, on the TM Test Part B the younger group demonstrated improvement m performance over time (P = 007) The older and middle age groups demonstrated decline in performance over time (P = 041 and 030) The older group had a significantly different trajectory relative to the younger group (P = 046) Among the HIV individuals, there was no effect of age on longitudinal performance In conclusion, older HIV+ individuals show greater decline over time than younger HIV+ individuals on the TM Test Part B Our results suggest that both HIV serostatus and age together may impact longitudinal performance on this test Mild neurocognitive changes over time among older HIV+ individuals are likely to reflect age associated patho physiological mechanisms including cerebrovascular risk factors Journal of Neuro Virology (2010) 16, 335-341