Experiencing and Managing HIV in Later Life

A new study, entitled 'Experiencing and Managing HIV in Later Life', led by Dr Dana Rosenfeld, School of Sociology and Criminology / Centre for Social Gerontology/ Research Institute for Social Sciences, will explore the lives of older people living with HIV in the UK.

Estimates are that by 2015, half of the people living with HIV in the West will be aged 50+. This rapidly ageing population is much more diverse than was the population of earlier years, with an increasingly high proportion of Black African and heterosexual persons.

This population is further divided into those living with HIV for many years and those infected and/or diagnosed in later life. However, little is known about these persons' quality of life, mental health and social support needs and how their different histories and circumstances shape how they experience and manage HIV in later life.

Approved for funding over two years by the Medical Research Council's Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Cross-Council Programme and the Economic and Social Research Council, a team representing social science, medicine, psychology, epidemiology, and the HIV community will explore connections between these older persons' personal, social and medical histories and their social support, mental health, and quality of life.

The team will interview stakeholders (including clinicians, policy makers and HIV activists), then interview 90 people aged 50+ living with HIV and gather mental health survey data from a further 140. These will be recruited through HIV clinics at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and Homerton University Hospital in London. Findings will inform suggested interventions designed to improve the social support, mental health, and quality of life of older people living with HIV.

More information about the project is available on the HALL Research Site