UNAIDS identifies HIV and ageing as a globally significant trend, with an increasing proportion of people over 50 living with HIV. This trend requires new strategies for prevention, testing and treatment.

New medicines and better knowledge about healthy lifestyles are leading to more and more people living with HIV growing old. Today, we meet the first generation to age with HIV. Almost half of all people living with HIV in Sweden are 50 years or older. An increasing number of older people are also being diagnosed with HIV. In Europe, every sixth person diagnosed with HIV is over 50 years old, compared to one in ten, ten years ago. Of these, more than 60% are diagnosed late.

Increasing life expectancy also means that many people are ageing with some form of disease, as multimorbidity is common as a person gets older. HIV and its treatment can also lead to earlier ageing.

Three reasons why the proportion of older people living with HIV is increasing globally - UNAIDS says

  • Successful effective treatment, extending the lives of people living with HIV

  • Decreasing number of HIV cases among young adults, contributing to increasing proportion of older people

  • People aged 50 and older exhibit many of the risk behaviors seen among younger people.

Source: UNAIDS

Ageing with HIV

There are concerns among people living with HIV about the treatment, medical care and the risk of co- and multimorbidities. This has a strong impact on their quality of life. How do we increase the number of healthy years? What can individuals do? What can health and social services do? How do we work together for more healthy years and a good, dignified and equal old age, regardless of diagnosis?

HIV Sweden has produced a knowledge base and a book highlighting different aspects of ageing with HIV. Leva livet (Living life) is part of the Elderly Project, which was supported by the Swedish National Heritage Fund 2016-2019.