Using network analysis to provide evidence for brain health as a unified construct relevant to aging with HIV

Brain health is a dynamic state involving cognitive, emotional, and motor domains. Measuring brain health is a challenge owing to the uncertainty as to whether it is one or many constructs. This study aimed to contribute evidence for brain health as a unified construct by estimating the strength of relationships between and among patient-reported items related to the brain health construct in a population with brain vulnerability owing to HIV.

Data for this cross-sectional analysis came from a Canadian cohort of people aging with HIV. The sample included 710 men recruited between 2014 and 2016 from five Canadian cities. A network analysis was conducted with 30 items selected from the brain-related domains of fatigue, cognition, depression, sleep, anxiety, and motivation. Node centrality measures were used to determine the most critical items in the network.

The network showed small-world properties, that is, most nodes can be reached from other nodes with few hops," indicating strong connectivity. The most central symptoms were "How much do you enjoy life?" and "How often do you have negative feelings?".

The small-world properties of the network structure indicate that brain health items are interconnected and may be influenced by shared underlying factors. The centrality indices suggest that items related to enjoyment of life and negative feelings may be particularly important for understanding brain health in this population. Future research should aim to replicate these findings in larger and more diverse samples to confirm their robustness and generalizability.