Strategies to improve the care of older adults 50 years and above living with HIV in Uganda

Mbalinda, SN, Lusota, DA, Muddu, M, Musoke, D and Nyashanu, M ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9231-0393, 2023. Strategies to improve the care of older adults 50 years and above living with HIV in Uganda. AIDS Research and Therapy, 20: 76. ISSN 1742-6405

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Abstract

Introduction: With effective antiretroviral therapy (ART), many persons living with HIV (PLHIV) live to old age. Caring for aged PLHIV necessitates the engagement of caregivers and patients to establish agreed-upon goals of treatment. However, there is limited literature on friendly and centered models of care for elderly PLHIV. We explored strategies to improve care in HIV clinics among PLHIV aged 50 years and above in Uganda.

Methods: We conducted 40 in-depth interviews in two hospitals with elderly PLHIV aged 50 years and above who had lived with HIV for more than ten years. We explored strategies for improving care of elderly PLHIV at both health facility and community levels. The in-depth interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The thematic approach guided data analysis.

Results: The elderly PLHIV suggested the following strategies to improve their care: creating geriatric clinics; increasing screening tests for non-communicable diseases in the ART clinics; community and home-based ART delivery; workshops at health facilities to provide health education on aging effectively; creating community support groups; financial assistance for the elderly PLHIV and advances in science.

Conclusions: There is need to improve community HIV care especially for the elderly and social and economic support in the community. Involving the elderly PLHIV in developing strategies to improve their health goes a long way to improve the patients' quality of care. There is a need to incorporate the raised strategies in HIV care or older adults.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	AIDS Research and Therapy
Creators:	Mbalinda, S.N., Lusota, D.A., Muddu, M., Musoke, D. and Nyashanu, M.
Publisher:	Springer
Date:	4 November 2023
Volume:	20
ISSN:	1742-6405
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1186/s12981-023-00550-y DOI 1832482 Other
Rights:	This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	08 Nov 2023 08:57
Last Modified:	08 Nov 2023 08:57
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/50310

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