African American Older Adults Living with HIV: Exploring Stress, Stigma, and Engagement in HIV Care.

African American Older Adults Living with HIV: Exploring Stress, Stigma, and Engagement in HIV Care. J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2020;31(1):265-286 Authors: Harris LM, Crawford TN, Kerr JC, Thomas TA, Schmidt V Abstract Limited information is available about factors that affect care engagement among African American older people living with HIV (OPLWH), despite the fact that this is the racial/ethnic group most disproportionally living with HIV/AIDS in the United States. The present mixed methods study examined the experiences of stress, HIV-related stigma, and engagement in care in a sample of 35 African American OPLWH. Quantitative methods measured global stress, HIV-stigma, and engagement in care, while in-depth qualitative interviews captured the lived experiences of HIV care engagement. Engagement in care was moderately correlated with overall stigma (r = -0.33, p = .05) and perceived stress (r = -0.42, p = .01). Qualitative interviews revealed that stigma was not the most significant stressor in the elders' lives, but instead a present and underlying force that was overshadowed by everyday life stressors that affected care engagement. Recommendations include that a retention specialist work alongside health care providers to increase engagement. PMID: 32037331 [PubMed - in process]
Source: Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: J Health Care Poor Underserved Source Type: research