Positive Brain Health Now – Understanding and improving brain health in HIV

Welcome to the Positive Brain Health Now study

We have assembled a new team of health care professionals with intersecting expertise in clinical HIV and neuroscience medicine, fundamental science, health outcomes and applied statistics to understand and improve brain health in HIV.

The objectives are to contribute evidence for the validity of a brief brain health assessment approach, to estimate the extent to which HIV-related cognition-relevant clinical factors and patient-centered outcomes inter-relate and evolve over time, allowing identification of the mechanisms underpinning longitudinal changes in brain heath.

A total of 840 participants from across Canada have been recruited and are characterized over a 27-month period to answer questions about evolution of outcome interests. All participants are offered basic brain health information. They are not required to take any special medications. They are asked to complete a questionnaire every 9 months detailing demographic information, vitality, stress, social support, sleep, cognition, quality of life, HIV and psychological symptoms. Participants also have their cognition assessed at each visit and provide blood and saliva samples for future immunological, virological or genetic studies.

The long-term goal of this study is to design and conduct other studies that will improve brain health in people living with HIV. Click here to know more about our sub-studies.

About The Study

The core of this research study is the development and follow-up of a comprehensively characterized cohort of aging HIV positive individuals.

Knowledge Exchange

You will find research papers published in scientific journals and community magazines, as well as our quarterly newsletters and monthly video-conferences.