The Impact of Structured Exercise on Brain Health in HIV Positive Individuals

This is an interventional treatment trial for HIV Read More

The exercise intervention will target individuals recruited from two Montreal clinics who identified at cohort entry they were interested in being approached for different trials if they eligible.

Inclusion Criteria:

• men and women aged ≥ 35 years, HIV+ for at least 1 year, able to communicate adequately in either French or English, and able to give written informed consent.

Also, participants must identify that they are mostly sedentary by reporting that they perform moderate level physical activity of 30 minutes duration less than twice a week or have limitations in performing vigorous activities, walking a kilometer, or climbing stairs. Individuals answering yes to any of the Physical Activities Readiness Questionnaire (PAR-Q) (Thomas et al., 1992) items except taking medication (Item 6) will require clearance from their physician to be included.

Exclusion Criteria:

• people with dementia (MOCA < 18) or treating physician's concern about capacity to consent, life expectancy of < 3 years or other personal factors limiting the ability to participate in follow-up, non-HIV-related neurological disorder likely to affect cognition, known active CNS opportunistic infection or hepatitis C requiring interferon (IFN) treatment during the follow-up period, psychiatric disorder on the psychotic axis, current substance use disorder or severe substance use disorder within the past 12 months.

Also excluded will be people with a contraindication for exercise from cardiovascular or musculoskeletal co-morbidity as gathered from the medical history and from the PAR-Q (Thomas et al., 1992).