Abstract:The number of older adults living with HIV/AIDS is larger than ever. Little is known about their sexual behaviors, although contrary to stereotypes, older adults desire and engage in sexual activity. Despite increased recognition of the need for prevention interventions targeting HIV-positive individuals, no secondary HIV prevention interventions have specifically targeted the older HIV-positive adult. Efforts to target high-risk sexual behaviors may be even more critical in the older population because of soc… Show more
“…Consistent with current research (Illa et al, 2010;Schick et al, 2010), the findings provide additional evidence that the population of older adults needs to be taken seriously as being at risk because of past, current, and future sexual activity. The authors believe that findings from these focus groups indicate that older adults may in fact see the importance of HIV/AIDS awareness, but that ageist stereotypes held by such external sources as their doctors and other healthcare providers may be contributing to the belief that HIV/AIDS prevention education is not necessary for this population.…”
“…Consistent with current research (Illa et al, 2010;Schick et al, 2010), the findings provide additional evidence that the population of older adults needs to be taken seriously as being at risk because of past, current, and future sexual activity. The authors believe that findings from these focus groups indicate that older adults may in fact see the importance of HIV/AIDS awareness, but that ageist stereotypes held by such external sources as their doctors and other healthcare providers may be contributing to the belief that HIV/AIDS prevention education is not necessary for this population.…”
“…The four articles conducted among HIV-negative participants aimed to improve general HIV knowledge to facilitate HIV prevention. Within the studies among HIV-positive participants, the main outcome measure of Lovejoy and colleagues [53] and Illa and colleagues [54] articles was reduced sexual risk behavior. The three Heckman et al articles [35,37,55] focused on mental health and coping assessments while the two Souza et al papers [36,56] emphasized physical status and strength.…”
BackgroundThe increasing number of people living with HIV aged 50 years and older has been recognised around the world yet non-pharmacologic HIV behavioural and cognitive interventions specifically targeted to older adults are limited. Evidence is needed to guide the response to this affected group.MethodsWe conducted a systematic review of the available published literature in MEDLINE, Embase and the Education Resources Information Center. A search strategy was defined with high sensitivity but low specificity to identify behavioural interventions with outcomes in the areas of treatment adherence, HIV testing uptake, increased HIV knowledge and uptake of prevention measures. Data from relevant articles were extracted into excel.ResultsTwelve articles were identified all of which originated from the Americas. Eight of the interventions were conducted among older adults living with HIV and four for HIV-negative older adults. Five studies included control groups. Of the included studies, four focused on general knowledge of HIV, three emphasised mental health and coping, two focused on reduced sexual risk behaviour, two on physical status and one on referral for care. Only four of the studies were randomised controlled trials and seven – including all of the studies among HIV-negative older adults – did not include controls at all. A few of the studies conducted statistical testing on small samples of 16 or 11 older adults making inference based on the results difficult. The most relevant study demonstrated that using telephone-based interventions can reduce risky sexual behaviour among older adults with control reporting 3.24 times (95% CI 1.79-5.85) as many occasions of unprotected sex at follow-up as participants. Overall however, few of the articles are sufficiently rigorous to suggest broad replication or to be considered representative and applicable in other settings.ConclusionsMore evidence is needed on what interventions work among older adults to support prevention, adherence and testing. More methodological rigourised needed in the studies targeting older adults. Specifically, including control groups in all studies is needed as well as sufficient sample size to allow for statistical testing. Addition of specific bio-marker or validated behavioural or cognitive outcomes would also strengthen the studies.
“…A summary score on the outcome variable 'General knowledge of HIV' was obtained by summing the item scores, 1 = yes and was rated as very high for a score of 4 points (that is 'yes' on all items), high for a score of 3 points ('yes' on any 3 items), medium for 2 points and low for a score of 1 point. 20 The results show that 95.7% (n = 580) of the older adults have very high knowledge of HIV and AIDS, 4.1% (n = 25) have high knowledge while 0.2% (n = 1) have low knowledge.…”
Section: General Knowledge Of Hiv and Aidsmentioning
confidence: 94%
“…studies that report continued high rates of unprotected intercourse among people with HIV, approximating 33%. 20,32,33 The authors showed that interventions to reduce risk of HIV transmission resulted in significantly less unprotected intercourse and greater condom use at follow-up. Transmissionrisk behaviours with non-HIV-positive sexual partners and estimated HIV transmission rates over a one-year horizon were also significantly lower for the behavioural risk-reduction intervention group.…”
Section: Knowledge Of Risks Associated With Hiv Infectionmentioning
Background: Older adults in Botswana have been shown to be sexually active and engage in risky sexual activities that make them vulnerable to HIV infection. In order to implement meaningful interventions to address older adults' HIV and AIDS concerns it is important to understand how much knowledge they have concerning HIV and AIDS and practices. This study explored the knowledge of HIV and AIDS and sexual practices of 609 older adults in Botswana. Methods: The study was cross-sectional and used a survey design. A total of 609 older adults were recruited using respondentdriven sampling (RDS) from four purposively selected health districts and interviewed on their individual HIV and AIDS-related knowledge and practices. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression. Results: Although knowledge of HIV and AIDS was high (95.7%), knowledge of HIV infection through blood transfusion, transmission from mother to child, or sharing needles or syringes was lacking. Only 72% of males and 23.2% of females know that having fewer partners and avoiding blood transfusions (71% of males and 44.3% of females) can minimise risks of HIV infection. Age, marital status and employment status significantly predicted knowledge of transmission (p < 0.05), while sex significantly predicted knowledge of prevention and control methods. Conclusion: The study concludes that age-appropriate and culturally relevant education and training of older adults are necessary for the prevention and control of HIV infection.
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