Developing Effective HIV/AIDS Education Programs for Older Adults: Assessing the Readiness of Potential Participants, and Features of an Educational Program

Currently 10-15% of the HIV/AIDS cases in the United States are among older adults who are over the age of 50, and this percentage is expected to increase as people with HIV live longer and become a part of the 50 and older population. Since 1991 there has been a 7% decline in AIDS cases among people under the age of 25, and a 22% increase among those over 50. There is limited research in understanding what kinds of education programs will be most effective in the 50+ population. Unfortunately most current educational strategies are not targeted towards the older segments of the population, nor do we know how responsive older adults are to these educational programs if they were made available. The current study employed a survey to obtain information through a self-administered questionnaire from health care recipients of the University of Utah aged 50 and older in order to better understand the characteristics of this population to participate in HIV/AIDS education programs, and to determine the types of program(s) in which they are willing to participate. It was found that as age increased so did the interest and likelihood of respondents to participate. It was further discovered that individuals were more interested in the topics of HIV/AIDS pertaining to history of the disease rather than prevention strategies. Finally, interested respondents were more willing to receive education through classroom discussion, and small group discussion. Ultimately it was found that there was some level of interest and likelihood of older adults to participate in education programs. Therefore, it is important to create programs that are not only educational but also appealing, so that this population will participate.