PEDIATRICS Vol. 106 No. 2 August 2000, p. e25

ELECTRONIC ARTICLE:
Early Cognitive and Motor Development Among Infants Born to Women Infected With Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Received Dec 8, 1998; accepted Feb 22, 2000.

Cynthia Chase^*, Janice Ware, Joan Hittelman^§, Ileana Blasini, MPH; Renee Smith^¶, Antolin Llorente^#, Elizabeth Anisfeld^**, Clemente Diaz, Mary Glenn Fowler^§§, Jack Moye^||, Leslie I. Kaligh^||, and for the Women and Infants Transmission Study Group

From the ^* Department of Pediatrics, Division of Infectious Disease, Boston Medical Center, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts;  Department of Pediatrics, Division of Infectious Diseases, Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; ^§ Health Science Center, Brooklyn and State University of New York, Brooklyn, New York;  Department of Pediatrics, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto, Rico; ^¶ Department of Pediatrics, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois; ^# Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas; ^** Department of Pediatrics, Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, New York;  Division of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, Maryland; ^§§ Pediatric Adolescent and Maternal AIDS Branch, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Washington, DC; and ^|| New England Research Institutes, Watertown, Massachusetts.

Objective.  To examine the frequency, timing, and factors associated with abnormal cognitive and motor development during the first 30 months of life in infants born to women infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1).

Methods.  Serial neurodevelopmental assessment was performed with 595 infants born to women infected with HIV-1 in a multicenter, prospective, natural history cohort study. Survival analysis methods were used to evaluate 6 outcome events related to abnormal cognitive and motor growth (time to confirmed drop of 1 SD, time to first score <69, and time to confirmed drop of 2 SD) in Bayley Scales of Infant Development Mental Developmental Index (MDI) and Psychomotor Developmental Index (PDI) scores among infected (n = 114) and uninfected (n = 481) infants. Proportional hazards modeling was used to evaluate the effects of HIV infection status, prematurity, prenatal exposure to illicit drugs, maternal educational attainment, and primary language.

Results.  HIV-1 infection was significantly associated with increased risk for all outcome events related to abnormal mental and motor growth. Differences between infected and uninfected infants were apparent by 4 months of age. Prematurity was associated with increased risk for MDI <69 and PDI <69. Maternal education of <9 completed years was associated with increased risk for MDI <69. Neither prenatal exposure to illicit drugs nor primary language other than English was associated with abnormal development.

Conclusion.  A significant proportion of infants with HIV-1 infection show early and marked cognitive and motor delays or declines that may be important early indicators of HIV disease progression. These abnormalities are independent of other risk factors for developmental delay.  Key words:  human immunodeficiency virus, child development.

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