An Observational Study on HIV and Syphilis Rates and Associated Risk Factors among Elderly Men in Wuxi, China

Abstract

Background: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) remains a nationwide health problem in China; there were a reported 1,045,000 people living with Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS by the end of October 2020, and the proportion of individuals aged 50 years and older living with HIV has also increased from 8% to 24% over the past two decades. 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 over 50 years living with HIV has also increased over the past two decades. Methods: A cross-sectional study and an 1:2 matched case-control study were conducted from July to August 2016, in Wuxi city, eastern China. A total of 1,000 men aged 50 years and older completed a face-to-face interview regarding their AIDS-related knowledge and attitudes, as well as risk behaviors. Results: Prevalence was 0.1% for HIV and 2% for syphilis. The awareness rate of AIDS-related knowledge among elderly men was 48.9% (range 40.7%-63.9%). The 1꞉2 matched case-control study indicated that only the AIDS-related attitudes were different between the two groups (χ2=8.726, P=0.013), the conditional logistic regression analysis indicated that scores of AIDS health knowledge were the only significant prognostic factor for the infection (HR=0.754 (0.569- 0.999), P=0.049). method: A cross-sectional study and an 1:2 matched case-control study were conducted from July to August 2016, in Wuxi city, eastern China. A total of 1000 men aged over 50 years completed a face-to-face interview regarding their HIV-related knowledge and attitudes, as well as risk behaviors. Conclusion: It was crucial to prevent HIV/AIDS and syphilis infections by improving the awareness of AIDS-related knowledge and changing related attitudes among the elderly. Further research aimed at identifying how these factors impact their sexual decision-making can shed valuable insight into further prevention program in this population.