HIV Incidence Among Older Adults in a Rural South African Setting: 2010–2015

Francesc Gomez-Olive , Harvard University
Brian Houle, Australian National University
Molly S. Rosenberg, Indiana University, Bloomington
Sanyu Mojola, Princeton University
Samuel J. Clark, The Ohio State University
Chodziwadziwa Kabudula, University of the Witwatersrand
Nicole Angotti, American University
Enid Schatz, University of Missouri, Columbia
Kathleen Kahn, University of the Witwatersrand
Jane Menken, University of Colorado Boulder
Till Barnighausen, Harvard University

HIV research focuses on young population. However, evidence shows high prevalence of HIV and sexual behaviour consistent with high acquisition and transmission risk in older people. We followed a cohort of older population in rural South Africa who tested negative for HIV in 2011 and retested in 2016 to estimate HIV incidence. We calculated crude HIV incidence over five years of follow up overall and by key socio-demographic characteristics. We used Poisson regression to measure the association of HIV seroconversion with demographic and behavioural covariates using the original sample weights. The cohort of 1275 individuals presented 33 seroconversions, with overall HIV incidence rate of 0.6 per 100 person-years (95% CI 0.4 – 0.9). This study is among the first to show HIV incidence directly measured at the population level from an older population cohort in Africa and highlights the importance of taking into consideration older population in preventive HIV campaigns.

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 Presented in Session 184. Reproductive Behavior and Sexual Health of Middle and Older Adults