Bonacina Silvia, Lichtenstein Jonathan D, Niemczak Christopher, Magohe Albert, Fellows Abigail, Nicol Trent, Massawe Enica, Kraus Nina, Buckey Jay C
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, United States.
Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Dartmouth College, Lebanon, NH, United States.
AIDS. 2025 Jan 1;39(1):49-56. doi: 10.1097/QAD.0000000000004020. Epub 2024 Sep 18.
Children with HIV (CWH) are at increased risk for cognitive and developmental delays, although HIV's influence on reading development remains unclear. Research using internationally validated reading measures with control for factors known to influence literacy outcomes is needed. The Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) is a tool for assessing students' progress toward reading that has been validated across countries. It was administered to a cohort of children living with and without HIV (CWH/CWOH) and data on other factors that might affect literacy were also measured.
388 children [217 children without HIV (CWOH) and 171 CWH; ages 3-8] drawn from a longitudinal study in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania completed the EGRA. EGRA performance between CWH and CWOH was compared adjusting for age, socioeconomic status, years of education, English learning, and type of school (public or private).
Despite the biological and environmental confounders, CWH performed significantly worse than CWOH on the Letter Name Knowledge subtest, the Syllable subtest, the Non-Word subtest, and the Reading Comprehension subtest. The difference approached significance for the Oral Reading Fluency subtest.
CWH performed worse than CWOH on the EGRA, indicating literacy skill development in CWH needs early intervention. Longitudinal analyses, including electrophysiological and behavioral data, are needed to find the factors associated with poor reading and literacy performance in CWH.
感染艾滋病毒的儿童（CWH）出现认知和发育迟缓的风险增加，尽管艾滋病毒对阅读发展的影响尚不清楚。需要开展研究，使用经过国际验证的阅读测评工具，并控制已知会影响识字结果的因素。早期年级阅读评估（EGRA）是一种评估学生阅读进展的工具，已在多个国家得到验证。该工具被用于一组感染和未感染艾滋病毒的儿童（CWH/CWOH），同时还测量了其他可能影响识字能力的因素的数据。
从坦桑尼亚达累斯萨拉姆的一项纵向研究中选取了388名儿童[217名未感染艾滋病毒的儿童（CWOH）和171名CWH；年龄在3至8岁之间]，他们完成了EGRA测试。对CWH和CWOH的EGRA表现进行了比较，并对年龄、社会经济地位、受教育年限、英语学习情况和学校类型（公立或私立）进行了调整。
尽管存在生物学和环境方面的混杂因素，但在字母名称知识子测试、音节子测试、非单词子测试和阅读理解子测试中，CWH的表现明显比CWOH差。在口头阅读流畅性子测试中，差异接近显著水平。
CWH在EGRA测试中的表现比CWOH差，这表明CWH的识字技能发展需要早期干预。需要进行纵向分析，包括电生理和行为数据，以找出与CWH阅读和识字能力差相关的因素。
