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The aging of AIDS

New support method offered for older adults with HIV/AIDS

By Colleen Kiphart

The HIV support group is filled with young faces. They talk about dating, slowing work-out routines, body image, college stress. But one face, a bit more worn than the others, holds thoughts he can’t bring himself to voice. How will he tell his grandchildren? Can he add more medications to his staggering daily regimen? How many more friends can he lose? What will people think?

According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2005, 24 percent of those living with AIDS were 50 or older, compared to 17 percent in 2000. At this rate, by 2015, half of all new cases of HIV in the U.S. will be in people over the age of 50.

Given these data, and the increasing life spans of people with HIV and AIDS, Tim Heckman, Ph.D., noticed a research oversight; among major studies, research samples all reflected people in their 20s and 30s. “We need to assess the psychological needs of older adults, too,” said Heckman, who is a professor of geriatric medicine and gerontology at the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine.

To do so, Heckman secured a four-year National Institutes of Health research grant in 2006. In its first two years, the research expanded nationwide and yielded a breakthrough study on the benefits of telephone support groups for older adults with HIV or AIDS who suffer depression.

About 35 percent of older adults with HIV live alone, according to Heckman. Many “don’t feel connected to the older community because of their HIV-positive status,” he says. Meanwhile, they often don’t relate to the younger HIV-positive community, or they simply avoid seeking support to avoid social stigma. Telephone support groups provide community with anonymity.

Heckman recruited ninety adults in New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Arizona, all of whom recently were diagnosed with HIV or AIDS in addition to a serious depressive disorder, to participate in telephone support groups.

The participants were divided into two groups, with one half receiving immediate intervention—group telephone sessions moderated by graduate students—and another receiving delayed intervention. Participants in both groups reported some reduction in their depression and loneliness, but the immediate intervention group saw the greater benefit.

Charles A. Emlet, Ph.D., MSW, associate professor of social work at the University of Washington Tacoma, who also studies AIDS in older populations, explains the difficulty in classifying the psychological needs of this group.

“Older adults living with HIV/AIDS are not a homogeneous group,” Emlet says. “The newly diagnosed [patients] face challenges with medication regimens, understanding the disease, disclosure and potential social stigma. Long-term survivors also face [additional] health conditions and psychological impacts of the disease such as depression.”  continue

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