Longitudinal anthropometric assessment of infants born to HIV-1-infected mothers, Belo Horizonte, Southeastern Brazil.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the growth parameters in infants who were born to HIV-1-infected mothers. METHODS The study was a longitudinal evaluation of the z-scores for the weight-for-age (WAZ), weight-for-length (WLZ) and length-for-age (LAZ) data collected from a cohort. A total of 97 non-infected and 33 HIV-infected infants born to HIV-1-infected mothers in Belo Horizonte, Southeastern Brazil, between 1995 and 2003 was studied. The average follow-up period for the infected and non-infected children was 15.8 months (variation: 6.8 to 18.0 months) and 14.3 months (variation: 6.3 to 18.6 months), respectively. A mixed-effects linear regression model was used and was fitted using a restricted maximum likelihood. RESULTS There was an observed decrease over time in the WAZ, LAZ and WLZ among the infected infants. At six months of age, the mean differences in the WAZ, LAZ and WLZ between the HIV-infected and non-infected infants were 1.02, 0.59, and 0.63 standard deviations, respectively. At 12 months, the mean differences in the WAZ, LAZ and WLZ between the HIV-infected and non-infected infants were 1.15, 1.01, and 0.87 standard deviations, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The precocious and increasing deterioration of the HIV-infected infants' anthropometric indicators demonstrates the importance of the early identification of HIV-infected infants who are at nutritional risk and the importance of the continuous assessment of nutritional interventions for these infants.