Affiliation:
1. Applied Psychology Department, Al Ain University, Abu Dhabi, UAE
2. Applied Sociology Department, Al Ain University,
Abu Dhabi, UAE
3. Clinical Psychology Department, Medical University, Sofia, Bulgaria
Abstract
Background:
Since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, the virus has taken millions of
lives worldwide. The United Nations AIDS Fund’s statistics reported that deaths caused by HIVrelated
conditions and AIDS were about 39 million from the beginning of the epidemic to 2015. The
united global efforts to fight the virus are considerably changing the indicators, such as mortality
and morbidity, but the challenges remain. The total number of people living with HIV in Bulgaria as
of 12th May, 2015, was 2,121. As of 30th November, 2016, the official data reported 2 460 people
living with HIV. As of 13th February, 2017, 2 487 individuals were HIV-seropositive. Approximately
60% of people with HIV are prone to developing cognitive impairment due to the infection.
Objective:
This study aimed to know the level of cognitive deficiency, in particular, the verbal and
semantic fluency of people living with HIV and AIDS
Methods:
In this study, a comparative analysis was carried out. The Stewart test was used to compare
the average independent samples. For clarity, the average values, the test statistics, and the estimated
significance levels are presented in the tables. Additionally, a statistical mechanism of factor
selection was used by the forward stepwise method. The Wilks' Lambda statistic reported values
between 0 and 1, with values close to zero indicating good discrimination of the model.
Results:
According to this research, the HIV positives participants generated fewer verbs than the
ones from the control group. The data were partially confirmed by the present study. There were
differences in terms of both adjectives and nouns among people living with HIV and AIDS.
Conclusion:
The study data proves that language deficits are detectable in neurocognitive testing of
HIV. The overall hypothesis of the study has been confirmed. The language impairments are primarily
qualitative and can be used as a marker for the initial and subsequent therapy assessment.
Publisher
Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.
Subject
Virology,Infectious Diseases
Reference41 articles.
1. Walters A.S.; The influence of homophobia in HIV/AIDS education. J Psychol Human Sex 1997,9(2),17-38
2. Heaton R.K.; Franklin D.R.; Ellis R.J.; HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders before and during the era of combination antiretroviral therapy: Differences in rates, nature, and predictors. J Neurovirol 2011,17(1),3-16
3. Villanueva J.L.; Torre-Cisneros J.; Jurado R.; Leishmania esophagitis in an AIDS patient: An unusual form of visceral leishmaniasis. Am J Gastroenterol 1994,89(2),273-275
4. Bhat J.; Mattew M.; Voice disorders in HIV-infected individuals: A preliminary study. Int J STD AIDS 2007,18(11),732-735
5. Mathew B.; Manoj P.; Bhatt B.C.; Sahu D.K.; Maheswar G.; Muneer S.; The curious case of PDS 11: A nearby, >10 myr old, classical T tauri binary system. Astron J 2017,153(5),225