Publication Details

Poverty, ageing and HIV in Wakiso district Uganda

Janet Seeley
Flavia Zalwango
Joseph Mugisha
Francien Scholten
2010

Abstract

Background: HIV is becoming increasingly common among older people but very limited data exist on the impact of infection on their lives and general well-being. Particularly in resource constrained settings.  This paper is based on qualitative data from 10 men and 10 women aged 60 years and over who are HIV infected and taking antiretroviral therapy (ART).

 Methods: Participants were visited monthly for 12 months to collect an oral diary on the older person’s life during the week prior to interview and to document their life story, in order to learn more about their well-being. Quantitative data were collected from these people as part of a larger study, through a standardised WHO questionnaire on health and ageing.

Results: All the participants faced problems accessing support.  They had lost supportive children and grandchildren as a result of the epidemic and relied upon neighbours to help them get food and water.  Such support could not be relied upon, and participants had to do as best they could to support themselves and, for those with a heavy care giving burden, their grandchildren.   A number of people were also the receivers of care, sometimes from the grandchildren they looked after.  In common with other older people in the communities in which they lived, they faced health-related problems of ageing but, ironically, because they were accessing ART they sometimes had better access to health service providers than their non-infected peers.  That said, support for all older people living in poverty is lacking, and urgent attention needs to be paid to providing social protection in Uganda for these and other vulnerable groups.

Publication Type(s)

Conference Paper

Ten Years of War Against Poverty Conference Papers

Conference: Ten Years of War Against Poverty

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