Purpose To explore primary care providers' HIV prevention practices for older adults. Primary care providers' perceptions and awareness were explored to understand factors that affect their provision of HIV prevention materials and HIV screening for older adults. Design and Method Data were collected through 24 semistructured interviews with primary care providers (i.e., physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners) who see patients older than 50 years. Results Results reveal facilitators and barriers of HIV prevention for older adults among primary care providers and understanding of providers' HIV prevention practices and behaviors. Individual, patient, institutional, and societal factors influenced HIV prevention practices among participants, for example, provider training and work experience, lack of time, discomfort in discussing HIV/AIDS with older adults, stigma, and ageism were contributing factors. Furthermore, factors specific to primary and secondary HIV prevention were identified, for instance, the presence of sexually transmitted infections influenced providers' secondary prevention practices. Implications HIV disease, while preventable, is increasing among older adults. These findings inform future research and interventions aimed at increasing HIV prevention practices in primary care settings for patients older than 50.

The validity of health information obtained through participants' reports of current medications (e.g., the brown bag method) is an important, but under-studied, area. In the current study, we examined the congruence of medication reports from a brown bag data collection with the pharmacy prescription records for 1430 participants (ages 23 to 97 years) of the seventh wave of the Seattle Longitudinal Study. Overall, the congruence of the brown bag data and pharmacy records was high. Congruence was better for younger participants, healthier participants, and for medications taken for serious conditions or on a regular basis. When the focus is on assessing participants' medications at a specific point in time (e.g., on the day of testing), brown bag data may provide more complete information than pharmacy records. Age and health status of the participants as well as the type of medications of interest should be considered when determining the validity of medication information reported by participants.To obtain information about the health status and medical conditions of their study participants, researchers often collect participants' reports of current medications. The self-report method for medications is commonly referred to as the "brown bag" method, because participants are typically given a brown paper bag as the means for them to bring their current medications back to the testing site for testers to record the prescription and nonprescription items (e.g., Bosworth & Schaie, 1997;Jobe et al., 2001). However, self-reports of current medications have also been collected over the telephone (Landry et al.,

The authors explored health behavior change during 5 years, considering age/cohort, health status, and gender effects. The authors divided the sample (n = 1,064) into 4 age/cohort groups: young adults (n = 139; 19-42 years), middle-aged adults (n = 386; 43-62 years), young-old adults (n = 296; 63-72 years), and old-old adults (n = 243; 73+ years) and health status: cardiovascular disease and physical disability. Smoking and seat belt behaviors remained stable, whereas alcohol, food consumption, food preparation, physical activity, dental, and medical behaviors showed change. Change in health behaviors differed by age/cohort group and health status for food consumption, food preparation, and medical care, primarily showing negative change for old-old adults and positive change for individuals with cardiovascular disease. Health behavior interventions need to focus on the old-old, individuals with physical disability, and on smoking and seat belt use. These specific populations and behaviors need to be targeted to promote positive health behavior change, to limit future onsets of disability and morbidity, and to prevent the occurrence of premature death.

Objective Utilizing a heterogeneous sample of adults diagnosed with HIV infection, the current study sought to explore associations among age, various dimensions of social support, and psychological and functional wellbeing. Methods Cross-sectional data capturing subjective and instrumental support, social interaction, behavioral health service utilization, and psychological wellbeing (i.e., positive affect and depressive symptomatology), as well as physical functioning, were collected from 109 men and women living with HIV. In order to explore age group differences, participants were stratified by age (≤ 54 vs. 55+ yrs.). Results Despite endorsing greater medical comorbidity, older adults reported significantly lower depressive symptomatology, greater positive affect, and were less likely to report seeing a behavioral health specialist than their younger counterparts. No age group differences emerged for instrumental support or amount of social interaction. However, older adults reported higher subjective support, which in turn was associated with lower depressive symptomatology, greater positive affect, and non-utilization of behavioral health services. Conclusion More attention should be paid to the social environment of individuals diagnosed with HIV, as the quality of social relationships may be particularly important for successful psychological adaptation to HIV.

Light to moderate alcohol consumption during late life may protect against a decline in learning and memory for non-APOE e4 allele carriers, but not for older adults who carry one or more APOE e4 alleles.

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This study aims to investigate age differences in rates of mental health/substance abuse and behavioral health treatment in HIV-positive adults. One-hundred and nine HIV-positive adults (21-88 years old) were recruited from the University of Pennsylvania Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) infectious disease clinics. Each subject participated in a 3-hour comprehensive behavioral/psychosocial interview. Over half of the sample displayed significant mental health and substance abuse symptoms, of which approximately a third were actively participating in behavioral health care. Major depression and illicit drug use appeared to be the most prevalent syndromes. However, individuals with mania and psychosis were most likely to be participating in behavioral health treatment, while individuals with at-risk drinking and illicit drug use were least likely to be participating in treatment. Furthermore, older-aged adults were less likely to be receiving behavioral health care when there was evidence of need. The findings of this investigation generally concluded that HIV-positive adults, especially older-aged adults, are in need of improved behavioral health management for mental health/substance abuse.

Objectives This study examines cognitive outcomes for alcohol drinking status over time, across cognitive ability and age groups. Methods Data (1998-2005) from N=571 Seattle Longitudinal Study participants age 45+years (middle-aged: 45-64, young-old: 65-75, old-old: 75+) were analyzed to examine the alcohol drinking status effect (e.g. abstinent, moderate (≤7 drinks/week), at-risk (≥8 drinks/week)) on cognitive ability (e.g., Memory, Reasoning, Spatial, Verbal Number, Speed abilities). Results Findings indicated that alcohol drinking status was associated with change in verbal ability, spatial ability, and perceptual speed. Decline in verbal ability was seen among alcohol abstainers and moderate alcohol consumers, but at-risk drinkers displayed relative stability. At-risk old-old adults and middle-aged adults (regardless of drinking status), displayed relative stability in spatial ability. Decline in spatial ability was however present among young-old adults across drinking status, and among abstaining and moderate drinking old-old adults. At-risk drinkers showed the most positive spatial ability trajectory. A gender effect in perceptual speed was detected, with women who abstained from drinking displaying the most decline in perceptual speed compared with women that regularly consumed alcohol, and men displaying decline in perceptual speed across drinking status. Discussion In this study, consuming alcohol is indicative of cognitive stability. This conclusion should be considered cautiously, due to study bias created from survivor effects, analyzing two time points, health/medication change status, and overrepresentation of higher socioeconomic status and white populations in this study. Future research needs to design studies that can make concrete recommendations about the relationship between drinking status and cognition.