Association of HIV infection and cognitive impairment in older adults: A meta-analysis

To synthesize evidence on the association between human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and cognitive impairment in older adults.

Meta-analysis.

Adults aged 50 years or older.

In this systematic literature review and meta-analysis, we searched PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and APA/PsycNet for studies published before July 21, 2020, that assessed the association between HIV-infection and cognitive impairment. We calculated pooled odds ratios (ORs) of cognitive impairment for people living with HIV (PLWH) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) using random-effect models and calculated pooled mean difference (MD) for major cognitive domains between PLWH and HIV-uninfected adults. We assessed risk of bias using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale.

Of the 4432 studies identified, 21 cross-sectional studies were eligible for the meta-analysis, including 15 examining global cognitive impairment. The meta-analysis showed that older PLWH were more likely to be cognitively impaired than HIV-uninfected controls (OR = 2.44, 95 % CI = [1.69, 3.53], number of estimates (k) = 15, I² = 71 %). This higher likelihood was shown in studies from high income countries (OR = 2.63, 95 % CI = [1.76, 3.94], k = 12, I² = 55 %), but not from upper-middle income countries (OR = 1.96, 95 % CI = [0.26, 14.68], k = 3, I² = 91 %). PLWH had lower scores than HIV-uninfected adults in 5 out of 7 major cognitive domains, including executive function (MD = -0.42, 95 % CI = [-0.72, -0.11], k = 5, I² = 32 %), processing speed (MD = -0.33, 95 % CI = [-0.59, -0.08], k = 6, I² = 16 %), verbal (MD=-0.29, 95 % CI = [-0.48, -0.10], k = 6, I² = 0%), recall (MD = -0.24, 95 % CI = [-0.38, -0.10], k = 6, I² = 0%) and motor/psychomotor (MD = -0.38, 95 % CI = [-0.59, -0.16], k = 5, I² = 31 %) performance.

Our meta-analysis provides empirical evidence that HIV infection is associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment among older adults, especially in cognitive domains of executive function, processing speed, verbal, recall, and motor/psychomotor.