Epidemiological aspects of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in older Brazilians: a comparative approach

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To compare epidemiological aspects of young (15 to 49 years old) and older (more than 50 years old) AIDS patients. METHODS: We analyzed 511,633 AIDS cases notified to the Brazilian Ministry of Health in the period of 1980-2008 looking at sex, age ranges, educational level and exposure category. Patients were divided into three age groups: under 15, from 15 to 49 and over 50 years old. Using a comparative approach, we analyzed data with regard to category of exposure, education (expressed in years of schooling), and sex ratio among younger (15-49) and older adults (over 50 years old). Time series data were log-transformed and normalized, and the temporal trend was evaluated. RESULTS: AIDS incidence is increasing among people over 50 years old in Brazil, with those older than 50 being responsible for 9.64 % of AIDS cases. There was no significant difference between educational level and gender (p = 0.468), but there was a significant difference in exposure category with a lower proportion of injecting drug users amongst the older group. CONCLUSION: Based on this analysis over the last 10 years, the percentage of AIDS cases has increased almost three times among people over 50 years old when compared with the 15-49 year-old group. Our findings suggest that public campaigns have to be specially targeted to the older segment of the population, aiming at heterosexual transmission

Trends in AIDS Incidence in Individuals Aged 50 Years or Older in the City of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1982–2011: An Age-Period-Cohort Analysis

“…Toledo et al , in a study conducted in southeastern Brazil from 1991 to 2006, observed that the cumulative incidence in people aged 50 years or older increased in proportion to the incidence in those aged 20–39 years, peaking in 2005 [25]. Carvalho and Câmara noted a sharp upward trend in AIDS morbidity in the Brazilian population aged 50 years or older throughout the period from 1988–2010 [26]. A study on individuals over 60 years of age in the Brazilian capital identified variations in incidence rates over the period from 1999 to 2009.…”

Human immunodeficiency virus in institutionalized elderly people

“…The main drugs used were lamivudine, zidovudine, lopinavir, ritonavir, levothyroxine, omeprazole, ranitidine, lactulose and risperidone ( Table 2). The mean number of medications taken was 10.5 ± 3-9, [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] Disparities in the definition of elderly among these published papers is also evident. Some of them used the age criterion of ≥ 50 years, 9,16,18,20,21 while others adopted ≥ 60 years.…”

Trends in AIDS-related mortality among people aged 60 years and older in Brazil: a nationwide population-based study

“…This pattern is consistent with the increasing number of AIDS cases among older people in the country in recent years (Brazilian Ministry of Health, 2015;Girondi et al, 2012). The increase in AIDS incidence and mortality in people aged 60 years and older may be due to the impact of the success and expansion of ART coverage on the increased survival and aging of people living with HIV, as well as a rise in new HIV diagnoses in later life (Carvalho & Câmara, 2012;UNAIDS, 2014b). In fact, people in this age group exhibit many of the same HIV risk behaviors found in younger age groups (UNAIDS, 2014b), such as resistance to using condoms; a noteworthy trend is the increased sexual activity among older adults as a result of using drugs to treat erectile dysfunction (Girondi et al, 2012;Oliveira et al, 2013).…”