RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Effects of biscuit-type feeding supplementation on the neurocognitive outcomes of HIV-affected school-age children JF Family Medicine and Community Health JO Fam Med Com Health FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd SP 245 OP 258 DO 10.15212/FMCH.2017.0130 VO 5 IS 4 A1 Kek Khee Loo A1 Shemra Rizzo A1 Qiaolin Chen A1 Robert E. Weiss A1 Catherine A. Sugar A1 Grace Ettyang A1 Judith Ernst A1 Goleen Samari A1 Charlotte G. Neumann YR 2017 UL http://fmch.bmj.com/content/5/4/245.abstract AB Objective To determine if meat or soy protein dietary supplementation will enhance the neurocognitive performance of HIV-affected children at-risk of malnutrition and food insecurity.Methods A randomized, double-blind, controlled intervention trial evaluated the effect of nutritional supplementation on the neurocognitive outcomes of 49 HIV-affected school-age children in western Kenya. The intervention consisted in providing the mother, target child, and siblings with one of three isocaloric biscuit-type supplements – soy, wheat, or beef – on 5 days per week for 18 months. Neurocognitive outcomes of the target children were assessed by a battery of eight measures and followed up longitudinally for up to 24 months.Results Mixed effects modeling demonstrated significant differences in the rates of increase over time among all three groups (F test degrees of freedom of 2, P<0.05) for Raven’s progressive matrices performance, but not for verbal meaning, arithmetic, digit span backward, forward, and total, embedded figure test, and Beery visual-motor integration scores.Conclusion HIV-affected school-age children provided with soy protein supplementation showed greater improvement in nonverbal cognitive (fluid intelligence) performance compared with peers who received isocaloric beef or wheat biscuits. Soy nutrients may have an enhancing effect on neurocognitive skills in HIV-affected school-age children.