Is There Evidence for Brain Health as a Unified Construct Relevant to Aging with HIV

• Main Author: Matout, Mohamad
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2023
• Subjects: Chronic illnesses; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive psychology; Internet and social media studies; Medicine; Social network analysis; Social networks; Social structure; Web studies
• ISBN: 9798382616452

Neuropsychiatric disorders and mental illnesses significantly impact the lives of individuals and families and are among the leading causes of years of life lost to disability (DALYs), globally, emphasizing the importance of understanding and maintaining brain health. Brain health is a multi- dimensional construct reflecting the brain's role in cognition, mood, emotional stability, motivation, and energy (and of course movement). Given the high prevalence of sub-optimal brain health in individuals with HIV, it is crucial to develop methods to define and measure brain health as a unified construct relevant to aging with HIV.Common psychometric and statistical models struggle to estimate intricate constructs due to their unpredictability, complexity, and instability. Network analysis (NA) research emerged in the 1980s, combining sociology, anthropology, and psychology disciplines to understand social phenomena. NA captures the complex relationships between observables, allowing for a comprehensive understanding of brain health.The objectives of this thesis are twofold: (1) to provide evidence that brain health as operationalized for the Positive Brain Health Now (BHN) cohort is a unified construct; and (2) to identify the variables that play a crucial role in brain health.Data for this cross-sectional analysis came from the Positive Brain Health Now (BHN) cohort, a Canadian cohort of people aging with HIV. NA was conducted with 30 items selected from the brain related domains of fatigue, cognition, depression, sleep, anxiety, and motivation.The small-world properties of the network structure indicate that brain health variables are interconnected and may be influenced by shared underlying factors. The centrality indices suggest that items related to enjoyment of life and negative feelings may be particularly important for understanding brain health in this population.This study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on network approaches in diverse domains, demonstrating the utility of NA in conceptualizing complex constructs such as brain health