Pre- and postnatal exposure to intimate partner violence among South African HIV-infected mothers and infant developmental functioning at 12 months of age

In rural South Africa, pregnant HIV-infected women report high rates of psychological (55%) and physical (20%) intimate partner violence(IPV). IPV increases the risk of infant developmental delays. Such delays may have negative socio-emotional and cognitive outcomes throughout the lifespan. This paper assesses the relationship between IPV and infant development in rural South Africa. The present investigation was a cross-sectional add-on follow-up designed retrospectively. A randomly selected sub-sample of mothers from the main randomized controlled trial(n=72) were asked to participate with their infants at 12 months of age; all women invited agreed to participate. One third had completed at least 12 years of education and had a monthly income of about US$76. At 12 months postpartum, 6% of infants tested HIV seropositive. Postnatal physical IPV was associated with delays in cognitive and receptive language development p <0.05,but only in unadjusted analyses. This study identified an association between early IPV exposure and infant cognitive and receptive communication delays. Given the small sample size, findings support replication. Longitudinal studies are needed to confirm temporal order and identify appropriate timing for interventions in HIV-exposed infants.