title: Emotional and behavioral disturbances in school going HIV positive children attending HIV clinic.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To study the emotional and behavioral disturbances (EBD) in school going HIV positive children attending HIV center in a tertiary care hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study was conducted on 258 HIV infected children between 6 and 16 years of age, 200 were on Anti-retroviral therapy (ART) and 58 were not on ART. They were evaluated for EBD by using Pictorial Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PPSC) screening tool. A cut-off score of 28 was taken as significant for detecting early EBD.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of EBD in our study is 11.2%. Demographic and disease related profile were assessed for correlation with EBD. Type of family (p= 0.023), school attendance (p= 0.034), school performance (p= 0.045), and CD4 count (p= 0.015) were detected to have significant association with early manifestation of EBD in the study group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  HIV positive children who have low CD4 count, poor school attendance, and performance are at a higher risk of being detected with EBD. Screening with PPSC to identify EBD in HIV positive children attending HIV clinic in a hospital setting could help in early diagnosis and management.
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune 411040, India.
authors.forename: Deepak
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Joshi
authors.affiliation: Graded Specialist (Pediatrics), 160 Military Hospital, C/o 99 APO, India.
authors.forename: Mithilesh K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Tiwari
authors.affiliation: Senior Advisor (Pediatrics), Command Hospital (Southern Command), Pune 411040, India.
authors.forename: Venkatnarayan
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kannan
authors.affiliation: Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune 411040, India.
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Dalal
authors.affiliation: Professor and Head, Department of Pediatrics, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune 411040, India.
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Mathai
keywords: Anti-retroviral therapy (ART); Emotional and behavioral disturbance (EBD); HIV positive children