title: The effects of prenatal HIV exposure on language functioning in Kenyan children: establishing an evaluative framework.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  HIV infection has been associated with impaired language development in prenatally exposed children. Although most of the burden of HIV occurs in sub-Saharan Africa, there have not been any comprehensive studies of HIV exposure on multiple aspects of language development using instruments appropriate for the population.
  
  
  METHODS
  We compared language development in children exposed to HIV in utero to community controls (N = 262, 8-30 months) in rural Kenya, using locally adapted and validated communicative development inventories.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean score of the younger HIV-exposed uninfected infants (8-15 months) was not significantly below that of the controls; however older HIV-exposed uninfected children had significantly poorer language scores, with HIV positive children scoring more poorly than community controls, on several measures.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our preliminary data indicates that HIV infection is associated with impaired early language development, and that the methodology developed would be responsive to a more detailed investigation of the variability in outcome amongst children exposed to HIV, irrespective of their infection status.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Fylde College, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YF, UK. k.j.alcock@lancaster.ac.uk.
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Alcock
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Fylde College, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YF, UK.|Centre for Geographic Medicine Research-Coast, KEMRI, Kilifi, Kenya.|Department of Public Health, Pwani University, Kilifi, Kenya.
authors.forename: Amina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abubakar
authors.affiliation: Centre for Geographic Medicine Research-Coast, KEMRI, Kilifi, Kenya.|Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Charles R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Newton
authors.affiliation: Centre for Geographic Medicine Research-Coast, KEMRI, Kilifi, Kenya.|Saving Brains Platform Team, Mombasa, Kenya.
authors.forename: Penny
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Holding
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000635:transmission*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical; D007630:Kenya; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy
keywords: Africa; Children; HIV; Language