High prevalence of neurocognitive disorders observed among adult people living with HIV/AIDS in Southern Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Comprehensive care given to people living with HIV/AIDS is improving over time; however, their concurrent cognitive illness is still ignored, under screened and treated particularly in developing countries. And this problem is also striking in Ethiopia. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders and associated factors among adult people living with HIV/AIDS. METHODS: An institution based cross sectional study was conducted from April to May, 2017 at Gamo Gofa zone public Hospitals. International HIV Dementia Scale was used to screen HIV associated neurocognitive disorders. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess predictors of neurocognitive disorders. RESULT: A total of 684 study participants were included in this study with a response rate of 98%. Among them, 56% were females while 44% were males. The mean (±SD) age of the participants was 38.8±8.8years. The screening prevalence of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder was 67.1% (95% CI; 63.6, 70.5). Body mass index 16 kg/m(2) (AOR 4.389 (1.603–12.016)), being married (AOR 0.377 (0.213–0.666), unemployment status (AOR 3.181 (1.752–5.777) and being in WHO clinical stage T3 category/advancing stages of the disease (AOR 3.558 (1.406–9.006) were the key predictors of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders among people living with HIV/AIDS. CONCLUSION: In this study the screening prevalence of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder is higher than the earlier reports in Ethiopia and Africa. This indicates that early screening strategies and policies for cognitive health in people living with HIV/AIDS should be given a top priority.