Cognitive Reserve Protects Against Apathy in Individuals with Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Abstract

Apathy is associated with impaired neuropsychological functioning in individuals with HIV.While cognitive reserve (CR) delays neurocog-nitivedecline,CR’s relationshipwith apathy has never been studied.We examinedCR’s associationwith apathy in 116HIV-positive individuals recruited from an urban AIDS center and assessed whether this relationship is moderated by age and/or disease severity. Participants completed the Wechsler Test of Adult Reading and Apathy Evaluation Scale. A CR-composite, combining years of education and word-reading ability, significantly predicted apathy (t 22.37, p .02). CR’s relationship with apathy was not moderated by age, but participants with nadir CD4 levels ≤200 demonstrated a stronger association (t 23.25, p .002) than those with nadir CD4 levels. 200 (t 20.61, p .55). Thesefindings suggest a protective effect ofCRagainst apathy inHIV-infected individuals across the age span, particularly after a certain thresh-old of disease severity