The Principal Investigator is new to the HIV/AIDS and aging field. The number of women age 45 and older who are living with HIV/AIDS is steadily increasing. Yet, understanding of the behaviors that put them at risk for HIV, why they often delay HIV testing, and what kinds of services and supports would help them better live with HIV is limited. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to identify, from the voices of women who are age 45 and older and living with HIV, the critical issues in preventing HIV, diagnosing and treating HIV early, and providing optimal services and supports to women of this age group with HIV.
The specific aims are to: (1) Understand HIV risk-taking behaviors associated with the acquisition and transmission of HIV among women age 45 and older, (2) Understand the barriers to and facilitators of early identification and treatment of HIV among these women, (3) Understand the barriers to and facilitators of use of services and supports for these women. This study will use a qualitative design employing in-depth interviews with 20-30 women age 45 and older who are positive for HIV. The sample will be selected to represent proportionately the two predominant racial categories of HIV+ women in Cleveland, Ohio: Whites and African Americans. Grounded theory, that is, theoretical explanations inductively derived from the data, will guide data collection, analysis, and interpretation of the findings. This study will serve as a pilot for a larger scale study of HIV-related behaviors among both women and men who are age 45 and older. It will demonstrate the feasibility of recruiting a sufficiently large sample to make comparisons across diverse groups; show that women age 45 and older are willing to share their perspectives on HIV-related behaviors; and generate new hypotheses to explain HIV-related behaviors for future testing. Findings from the pilot study itself will give insights into the complex age, gender, social and cultural context within which HIV-related behaviors occur, thus contributing to HIV prevention, early identification and treatment, and provision of quality of care for HIV positive women.
| Neundorfer, Marcia M; Harris, Phyllis Braudy; Britton, Paula J et al. (2005) HIV-risk factors for midlife and older women. Gerontologist 45:617-25 |
