Growth and neurodevelopmental trajectories among HIV-exposed uninfected children

HIV暴露和神经发育之间的相关性的异质性可能归因于研究设计的差异或未测量的混杂因素。值得注意的是，高浓缩铀儿童可能会遇到其他风险因素，如贫困，营养不良或社会经济不利因素（1，5）。为了适当调整潜在的混杂因素，因此，在前瞻性队列中研究HEU儿童的生长和神经发育是至关重要的，这些队列在怀孕早期招募参与者，进行频繁的随访，并收集强大的人体测量，生物医学和社会经济学数据。AimsThis博士项目将调查HEU和HUU儿童生长延迟和神经发育受损的风险因素。为此，该项目有三个主要目标（图1）：1.通过系统回顾和荟萃分析，评估24个月时暴露于HIV的未感染儿童与未暴露于HIV的未感染儿童在生长和神经发育方面的差异。评估南非HIV暴露未感染和HIV未暴露未感染儿童24个月时神经发育的决定因素.确定南非艾滋病毒暴露未感染儿童中ART方案类型与围产期结局之间的关系。

The reported heterogeneity in the association between HIV-exposure and neurodevelopment could be attributed to differences in study design or unmeasured confounding. Notably, HEU children are likely to experience other risk factors for delayed growth and neurodevelopment, such as poverty, undernutrition or socioeconomic disadvantage (1,5). To appropriately adjust for potential confounding factors, it is therefore central to study growth and neurodevelopment among HEU children in prospective cohorts that recruit participants during early pregnancy, conduct frequent follow-up, and collect robust anthropometric, biomedical, and socioeconomic data.AimsThis DPhil project will investigate risk factors for delayed growth and impaired neurodevelopment among HEU and HUU children. To this end, the project has three principal aims (Figure 1):1. Assess differences in growth and neurodevelopment at 24 months age among HIV-exposed uninfected children compared to HIV-unexposed uninfected children through a systematic review and meta-analysis.2. Assess determinants of neurodevelopment at 24 months age among HIV-exposed uninfected and HIV-unexposed uninfected children in South Africa.3. Determine the association between types of ART regimen and perinatal outcomes among HIV exposed uninfected children in South Africa.