Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

As people with HIV live into their senior years, they accumulate health challenges both from aging and from HIV. The typical manifestations of chronic diseases in older persons are under-studied in HIV. Disability is one of the results of aging and of living with a chronic disease, but these disabilities are not always visible. The specific objective is to estimate the prevalence of impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions in people living with HIV and the effect of age and sex on these disabilities. The ICF framework was used to model physical, emotional, and cognitive impairments, capacity and performance in everyday activities, participation in usual activities and expected life roles, as well as personal and environmental factors. The prevalence of invisible disabilities (pain, fatigue, low mood, negative body image, low self-esteem, low sleep quality, and cognitive problems) ranged from 15% (negative body image) to 95% (any memory concerns). Other prevalent invisible disabilities were planning and organization challenges (55%), symptoms of depression and anxiety (38%), fatigue (32%), and pain (32%). Although HIV is now a health condition that can be managed, disabilities remain prevalent and invisible disabilities are common.The most prevalent visible disabilities are those related to more strenuous activities and indicate that the HIV population may be at risk for future disability arising from inactivity. As most of the disabilities are actionable, behavioural and rehabilitative interventions should be considered as part of front-line therapy to change this disability profile.