老年人的世界不应成为Hiv的盲区
http://www.100md.com
2000年9月27日
HIV programs needed for US seniors
WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) - HIV and AIDS (news - web sites) education and prevention programs have largely ignored people older than 50, despite the fact that this group represents more than 10% of Americans with AIDS, according to researchers convened here by the National Institute on Aging.
Recent research shows that most HIV risk behaviors do not disappear as people get older. Yet prevention programs targeted to adolescents and young adults at risk of HIV infection have never been extended to older people.
"We are essentially looking at a totally blank slate” in terms of HIV prevention for older people, said Dr. Isaac Montoya, an HIV/AIDS researcher with the Houston-based Affiliated Systems Research think tank.
The fact that younger people are most vulnerable to HIV infection justifies the fact that most interventions are targeted at them, he said. "But the costs (to Medicare) will be tremendous if we don't start doing prevention'' in the large Baby Boomer population that is now entering retirement, he told Reuters Health.
Research is only just beginning to look at how seniors view their own risk levels and to determine what prevention methods might appeal to them.
"Older people continue to see themselves at low or no risk,” said Dr. Diane Zablotsky, an HIV researcher from the University of North Carolina, in Charlotte. She stressed that nearly 11,400 of the 120,000 women diagnosed with AIDS up until 1999--some 9.5%--were older than 50.
"But no research has been done to explore how mature women in long-term relationships can initiate self-protective behaviors” such as demanding condom use by their partners, she said.
A handful of HIV interventions targeting older people do exist. One publicly funded program in the Miami area delivers HIV educational messages to both indigent elderly people and more wealthy seniors living in condominium complexes. The budget for the Senior HIV Intervention Project is $100,000 per year, according to Lisa Agate, its director.
The program is 3 years old, but no data have been collected on whether the messages are affecting risk behaviors or HIV infection rates in South Florida. "We're hoping to do that in the future,’ Agate said., http://www.100md.com(Todd Zwillich )
WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) - HIV and AIDS (news - web sites) education and prevention programs have largely ignored people older than 50, despite the fact that this group represents more than 10% of Americans with AIDS, according to researchers convened here by the National Institute on Aging.
Recent research shows that most HIV risk behaviors do not disappear as people get older. Yet prevention programs targeted to adolescents and young adults at risk of HIV infection have never been extended to older people.
"We are essentially looking at a totally blank slate” in terms of HIV prevention for older people, said Dr. Isaac Montoya, an HIV/AIDS researcher with the Houston-based Affiliated Systems Research think tank.
The fact that younger people are most vulnerable to HIV infection justifies the fact that most interventions are targeted at them, he said. "But the costs (to Medicare) will be tremendous if we don't start doing prevention'' in the large Baby Boomer population that is now entering retirement, he told Reuters Health.
Research is only just beginning to look at how seniors view their own risk levels and to determine what prevention methods might appeal to them.
"Older people continue to see themselves at low or no risk,” said Dr. Diane Zablotsky, an HIV researcher from the University of North Carolina, in Charlotte. She stressed that nearly 11,400 of the 120,000 women diagnosed with AIDS up until 1999--some 9.5%--were older than 50.
"But no research has been done to explore how mature women in long-term relationships can initiate self-protective behaviors” such as demanding condom use by their partners, she said.
A handful of HIV interventions targeting older people do exist. One publicly funded program in the Miami area delivers HIV educational messages to both indigent elderly people and more wealthy seniors living in condominium complexes. The budget for the Senior HIV Intervention Project is $100,000 per year, according to Lisa Agate, its director.
The program is 3 years old, but no data have been collected on whether the messages are affecting risk behaviors or HIV infection rates in South Florida. "We're hoping to do that in the future,’ Agate said., http://www.100md.com(Todd Zwillich )