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Sexual Health and Behavior Among Older Adults with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa

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Aging with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa

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Abstract

A growing body of work examines sexuality in later life in sub-Saharan Africa, but we know little about the sexual health of older people with HIV in this region. Using data from Uganda and South Africa, we examined sexual health and risk in older people with HIV and examined similarities and differences based on nationality and gender. Over 40% of older adults were sexually active in the past year, and older men were twice as likely as older women to be sexually active. Multivariate analysis found that being younger, being married, feeling sex was important, and not avoiding sex due to one’s HIV serostatus all increased the odds of being sexually active in the past year. Older adults in South Africa were more likely to use condoms consistently with a partner/spouse compared to those in Uganda, but there were no significant differences in condom use based on gender. In multivariate analysis, only having a partner who refused to use condoms significantly decreased the odds of condom use after controlling for other factors. Findings underscore the continued need for secondary HIV prevention efforts and the need to address sexual health issues among older adults with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging, Hunter College, The City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Mark Brennan-Ing & Jennifer E. Kaufman

  2. Department of Gerontology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA

    Kristen E. Porter

  3. School of Health and Society, Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia

    Catherine MacPhail

  4. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK

    Janet Seeley

  5. Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Uganda Research Unit, Entebbe, Uganda

    Janet Seeley & Monica O. Kuteesa

  6. Center on HIV and Aging, GMHC, New York, NY, USA

    Stephen E. Karpiak

  7. Ezintsha, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Francois Venter

  8. School of Social Justice, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Victor Minichiello

  9. IAVI, Nairobi, Kenya

    Monica O. Kuteesa

  10. The University of Sydney School of Public Health, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Joel Negin

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  1. Mark Brennan-Ing
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  2. Jennifer E. Kaufman
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  3. Kristen E. Porter
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  4. Catherine MacPhail
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  5. Janet Seeley
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  6. Stephen E. Karpiak
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  7. Francois Venter
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  8. Victor Minichiello
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  9. Monica O. Kuteesa
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  10. Joel Negin
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Correspondence to Mark Brennan-Ing .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging, Hunter College, The City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Mark Brennan-Ing

  2. Department of Gerontology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA

    Kristen E. Porter

  3. Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging, Hunter College, The City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Jennifer E. Kaufman

  4. School of Health and Society Faculty of the Arts Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia

    Catherine MacPhail

  5. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK

    Janet Seeley

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Brennan-Ing, M. et al. (2022). Sexual Health and Behavior Among Older Adults with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa. In: Brennan-Ing, M., Porter, K.E., Kaufman, J.E., MacPhail, C., Seeley, J. (eds) Aging with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96368-2_4

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