HIV/AIDS and Aging

In the AIDS Library

Materials focusing primarily on aging

• Aging with HIV: A Gay Man’s Guide, by James Masten
• Aging with HIV: Psychological, Social, and Health Issues, by Janice E. Nichols et al
• What People Over 50 Need to Know About HIV and AIDS, by the PA Department of Health – a pamphlet, available in both English and Spanish
• The New Ourselves, Growing Older: Women Aging with Knowledge and Power,  by Doress-Worters and Paula Brown – part of the Our Bodies, Ourselves series
• Nutrition in Aging, by Eleanor D. Schlenker

Materials with sections focusing on aging:

• The Alternative Health & Medicine Encyclopedia, by James E. Marti – with a chapter called “Aging”
• Doctor, What Should I Eat?, by Isadore Rosenfeld, M.D. – with a section called “Aging: No One Lives Forever – But It’s Worth a Try”
• Extended Health Care At Home: A Complete and Practical Guide, by Evelyn M. Baulch – with a section “Care for the Elderly”
• The Gay Men’s Wellness Guide, by Robert E. Penn – with chapters called “Older Gay Men,” and “Aging”
• Natural Family Doctor: The Comprehensive Self-Help Guide to Health and Natural Medicine, by Dr. Andrew Stanway et al – with a section of “The later years” and “Death and bereavement”
• Our Bodies, Ourselves, by the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective – with a sections on “Midlife and Menopause” and “Our Later Years”
• The Planned Parenthood Women’s Health Encyclopedia, by Planned Parenthood – with an entry on “Aging” and entries on many other issues related to Aging
• The Women’s Complete Wellness Book, by Debra R. Judelson, M.D., and Diana L. Dell, M.D. – with chapters called “Mature Years: Ages 46 to 64” and “Older Years: Ages 65 and Over”

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The Basics

For a brief introduction to this issue, see AIDS InfoNet’s Older People and HIV.

For a longer introduction, see:

• The AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (ACRIA)’s HIV and Older Adults and Preventing HIV in Older Adults booklets, available in both English and Spanish
• Positively Aware’s issue Aging with HIV: You’re Getting Older and Better

For a statistical introductions, see

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s webpage on HIV/AIDS in Persons Aged 50 and Older – for basic statistics
• GMHC’s Growing Older With the Epidemic – for more detailed epidemiological trends and policy recommendations

For a comprehensive patient handout, see the HIV Training and Resource Initiative’s Coming of Age: A Guide to Aging Well With HIV, a 68-page booklet filled with clear explanations of the aspects of medical care and practical advice for staying health.

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Specific Issues

For considerations of HIV risk among older folks (and people having sex with them), see:

• Older Adults and HIV Risk, a paper by a University of Illinois social work professor
• The British non-profit NAM’s Having Older Sexual Partners Increases HIV Risk for Younger Gay Men

For safer sex / prevention messages aimed at older adults, especially those at high risk, see:

• ACRIA and GMHC’s Still Got It at Sevety: Sexuality, Aging, and HIV
• Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders’s Ten Things Every LGBT Older Adult Should Know About HIV/AIDS
• The National Resource Center on LGBT Aging’s An HIV/AIDS Trainer’s Perspective – for tips on talking with older adults about HIV/AIDS
• ACRIA’s collection of Palm Cards and Posters About HIV Testing for Older Adults, available in English, Spanish, Russian, Haitian Creole, and Chinese.
• The AIDS Institute’s webpage for National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day  (NHAAD, September 18^th), which includes a toolkit (at the bottom of the page), including posters, brochures, and PowerPoint presentations

For more on the way HIV can effect aging, see

• ACRIA and GMHC’s Aging Before Your Time? – with a rundown of common manifestations of again and the way that HIV effects many of these issues
• The Black AIDS Institute’s Living Longer with HIV/AIDS Includes Developing Chronic Diseases
• Science Daily’s Premature Aging Caused by Some HIV Drugs
• Medscape Medical News’s HIV Speeds Brain Aging

For a couple other specific issues around living with HIV in older age, see:

• The Well Project’s Menopause and HIV
• AIDSMeds.com’s Exercises Guidelines Published for People with HIV Over 50

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News & Personal Accounts

For recent news or magazine stories on this issue, see

• American Medical Care’s HIV in Primary Care: Treating an Aging Epidemic
• The Huffington Post’s Aging & HIV: The New Face of HIV
• New York Magazine’s Another Kind of AIDS Crisis
• NPR’s AIDS Patients Now Living Longer, But Aging Faster

For personal accounts, see

• ACRIA’s Let’s Face It: Older Adults Speak About HIV – a booklet with twelve personal stories, available in both English and Spanish
• Aging with HIV – a blog by James Masten, a Therapist and Social Work professor, which includes both professional opinions and personal opinions as someone working in the field for over 20 years.
• AARP’s Meet 6 unforgettable people over 50 living with HIV
• Helena Bushong: In Her Own Words – the story of an HIV+ older transwoman
• How to Age with HIV – Gracefully, a personal narrative from POZ magazine
• The Graying of AIDS, a photo series with personal narratives

For video personal accounts, see:

• Aging POZitively – a 35-minute video profiling three older HIV+ adults
• AARP’s Standing Up to Stigma – an article and 6-minute video profiling a retired doctor who was kicked out of an assisted living facility because of his HIV status
• The Graying of AIDS – the website of a documentary currently in progress, with dozens of interviews

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Info for Providers

For longer introductions about HIV/AIDS and aging aimed at providers:

• Achieve Magazine published an entire issue in 2009 called Growing Older with HIV
• ACRIA published a report called Research on Older Adults with HIV
• The U.S. Administration on Aging hosted a webinar in June of 2011 aimed at providers called Positive Aging: HIV Turns 30

For clinical research on HIV/AIDS and aging, see:

• University of California, San Francisco’s HIV InSite’s pages HIV and Aging: A Paradigm Shift in the Management of HIV Disease, a narrated slideshow, and HIV and Aging: Related Resources, an aggregation of journal articles, conference reports, provider education modules, and more
• ACRIA’s HIV & Aging Research: A Roadmap for the Future
• The University of Michigan’s Center for the Demography of Aging’s Research Network on HIV/AIDS and the Elderly – for research around the world
• The Body’s Updates from the First International Workshop on HIV & Aging
• Critical Interventions in Aging’s article on Religion, Spirituality, and Older Adults With HIV: Critical Personal and Social Resources For An Aging Epidemic
• The Body’s Aging & HIV/AIDS: Research page – which collects dozens more studies and reports on the topic

For an educational video aimed at providers, see the AIDS Education & Training Center’s HIV and Older Adults, a 28-minute video about co-morbities, treatment, psychosocial issues, the importance of testing older adults, and more.