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Abstract
Advances in the treatment of HIV have resulted in a large growing population of older adults with HIV. These aging adults face added social, psychological, and physical challenges associated with the aging process. Correlations between depression, loneliness, health, and HIV/AIDS-related stigma have been studied, but there is little evaluation of these associations among HIV-positive adults over the age of 50. Data for these analyses were taken from the Research on Older Adults with HIV study of 914 New York City-based HIV-positive men and women over the age of 50. In total, 39.1% of participants exhibited symptoms of major depression (CES-D>23). Multivariate modeling successfully explained 42% of the variance in depression which was significantly related to increased HIV-associated stigma, increased loneliness, decreased cognitive functioning, reduced levels of energy, and being younger. These data underscore the need for service providers and researchers to assert more aggressive and innovative efforts to resolve both psychosocial and physical health issues that characterize the graying of the AIDS epidemic in the USA. Data suggest that focusing efforts to reduce HIV-related stigma and loneliness may have lasting effects in reducing major depressive symptoms and improving perceived health.
Acknowledgements
Research on Older Adults with HIV (ROAH) was funded by the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (ACRIA). Christian Grov was supported in part as a postdoctoral fellow in the Behavioral Sciences training in Drug Abuse Research program sponsored by Public Health Solutions and the National Development and Research Institutes, Inc. (NDRI) with funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (T32 DA07233). The authors acknowledge the contributions of the ACRIA ROAH project team – Andrew Shippy, MA, Judith Goodwin Rabkin, PhD, MPH, Prof. Emerita Marjorie Cantor, and Richard Havlik, MD.