Ageing and HIV disease - a client’s perspective

Abstract

Objective: To ascertain the perspective of HIV-positive clients’ on issues regarding ageing and to establish strategies to improve health outcomes for this population.

Method: A descriptive qualitative study; data was collected by means of a questionnaire.

Setting: Primary care outpatient clinic in a major metropolitan teaching hospital and tertiary referral centre.

Subjects: 72 HIV positive men with a mean age of 45 years (range 38 to 63). Women were excluded from the study due to low numbers over study period.

Main outcome: Clients identified issues which may be used to develop strategies for clinical care and health promotion activities.

Results: 53% of respondents thought HIV would progress faster with ageing. 61% were concerned aged care facilities may not be friendly toward people who were homosexual (p=0.03). 92% thought ageing would impact on physical abilities with 28% thinking they will need future support for this. 79% were taking highly active antiretroviral medications (HAART). Younger respondents were concerned about the long term effect of HAART (p=0.002).

Conclusion: Issues, including social isolation and aspects of clinical care, identified by participants in this study may be used to develop strategies, such as monitoring for risk markers of cardiac disease during routine assessment, may provide improved care for this population with a focus on enhanced health outcomes whilst ageing with HIV and AIDS.