Archive | 2021
An Observational Study on HIV and Syphilis Rates and Associated Risk Factors Among Elderly Men in Wuxi, China
Abstract
\n Background: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) remains a nationwide health problem in China, there were a reported 1,045,000 people living with HIV/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) by the end of October 2020, and the number of individuals aged 50 years and older living with HIV has also increased over the past two decades.Methods: A cross-sectional and 1:2 matched case-control studies were conducted from July to August 2016, in three community of Wuxi city, eastern China. A total of 1000 men aged 50 and over completed a face-to-face interview regarding their HIV-related knowledge and attitudes, as well as risk behaviors. All participants also provided a five-milliliter blood sample for syphilis and HIV testing.Results: Among the 1,000 participants, the mean age was 64.7±8.1 years. Less than half of the participants answered all HIV and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)-related questions correctly (range 40.7%-63.9%). Younger men (χ2=23.175, P<0.05) with more education (χ2=52.054, P<0.05) were more knowledgeable about HIV compared to others. Less than 10% men knew where to get test for HIV, while only 2.1% had ever been tested. Serological testing showed that 20 participants were currently infected with syphilis and one person was tested positive for HIV antibody, however, none of them admitted having risky behaviors related to HIV/STDs. The 1꞉2 matched case-control indicated that only the AIDS-related attitudes were different between two groups (χ2=8.726, P=0.013), the conditional logistic regression analysis indicated that scores of AIDS health knowledge was the only significant prognostic factor for the infection (HR=0.754 (0.569-0.999), P=0.049).Conclusions: The overall HIV/STDs-related knowledge among elderly men in Wuxi, China was low. Further research aimed at identifying how these factors impact their sexual decision making can shed valuable insight into further prevention program in this population.