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BACKGROUND: HIV infection has been associated with impaired language development in prenatally exposed children. Although most of the burden of HIV occurs in sub-Saharan Africa, there have not been any comprehensive studies of HIV exposure on multiple aspects of language development using instruments appropriate for the population. METHODS: We compared language development in children exposed to HIV in utero to community controls (N = 262, 8-30 months) in rural Kenya, using locally adapted and validated communicative development inventories. RESULTS: The mean score of the younger HIV-exposed uninfected infants (8-15 months) was not significantly below that of the controls; however older HIV-exposed uninfected children had significantly poorer language scores, with HIV positive children scoring more poorly than community controls, on several measures. CONCLUSIONS: Our preliminary data indicates that HIV infection is associated with impaired early language development, and that the methodology developed would be responsive to a more detailed investigation of the variability in outcome amongst children exposed to HIV, irrespective of their infection status.

Original publication

DOI

10.1186/s13104-016-2264-3

Type

Journal article

Journal

BMC Res Notes

Publication Date

12/10/2016

Volume

9

Keywords

Africa, Children, HIV, Language, Child, Preschool, Female, HIV Infections, Humans, Infant, Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical, Kenya, Language Development, Male, Pregnancy