Latinxs with HIV: Depressive Cognitive Alterations as a Precursor to Cardio-Motor Deficits

Abstract

HIV is a debilitating infection that often presents with health-related complications, further reducing quality of life. Of the most common comorbidities accompanying HIV is depression, which can induce cognitive alterations alongside those resulting from the virus. Latinxs are disproportionately susceptible to both afflictions and face innumerable challenges in the identification and diagnosis of depression. Consequently, HIV-infected Latinxs may experience additional cognitive symptomatology from the simultaneous prevalence of depression and HIV, potentially affecting their gait and cardiovascular profiles. This study aimed to determine the impact of depression on cardio-motor components in HIV-infected Latinxs. Records of 291 stable HIV+ participants were collected from La Perla de Gran Precio Community Center, analyzed for depression, and respectively allocated to the depression group (70) and the group without depression (221). Cardio-motor values were obtained by conducting the Ross treadmill test, a submaximal cardiovascular assessment. An ANOVA revealed similarities in cardiomotor profiles between groups, alluding to the absence of depression-induced modifications to gait and cardiovascular health. Community exercise and cardiopulmonary intervention programs are beneficial to the quality of life in this population during all stages of HIV. However, HIV-infected Latinxs with depression face acute cultural challenges, causing diagnoses and treatment oversights and deficiencies for those who are suffering. Public health efforts should aim to remove barriers facing this population to ultimately reduce the inflated prevalence of both afflictions. Future research should focus on the crucial differentiation of Latinx depressive symptoms from those identical in HIV prior to reinvestigating cardiomotor alterations.