Because of ACRIA’s extensive community presence

Because of ACRIA’s extensive community presence, its outreach and word of mouth within the HIV/AIDS population drew a pool of volunteers representing a diverse and rich cross section of the population from more than 25 study locations across the New York City region. People who were HIV positive, age 50 or older, could participate. Volunteers had an average age of 55.5 years and more than half were between 50-55, said Mark Brennan, senior research scientist at ACRIA.

For several months, these volunteers filled out questionnaires at the study sites or at ACRIA. “The survey covered a lot of ground,” Brennan said, “and the over-600 data points for each person were mostly yes/no or multiple-choice questions, but there were some open-ended items as well.”

It turned out that the education level of the volunteers was “similar to the general population of New York City,” Brennan said, with more than half graduating from high school and nearly one-fourth having some college, while 13 percent were college graduates and a few had a graduate degree.

Brennan said 264 women, 640 men and 10 transgender persons participated in the study with the majority of people (83 percent) having been born in the U.S. Half identified themselves as black, a third Latino and about 14 percent white. The remaining 4 percent identified themselves as Asian/Pacific Islander, American Indian or multi-ethnic.

The data found that the older adults in this study have been living with HIV an average of 13 years, ranging from three months to 26 years since diagnosis. The majority of people rated their overall health as “fairly good,” another indicator, Brennan said, of the successful drug therapies of the last decade.

“The majority were not working and were either on disability, retired or not employed,” he said, adding that more than half described their income as “just enough to get by,” and nearly one-fourth said they “do not have enough to make ends meet.”
Karpiak said these findings reinforce his and other experts’ belief that “it’s important to realize for older people with HIV/AIDS, living well and aging successfully is more than just taking pills.”