Abstract

The study is one of the first to examine both the prevalence of life instability among older adults with HIV (OAWH) in a community clinic and its relationship to their mental health. OAWH (N=623) from a community medical clinic completed an interviewer-administered assessment (English/Spanish) which included an additive Life Instability Index (LII) composed of indicators at the individual (e.g. education, housing instability, employment status) and community (e.g. poverty, transportation) levels. Participants were a mean age of 60 years (SD = 5.90) with the majority identifying as Black-non-Hispanic (65.9%), cisgender male (60.8%), and heterosexual (80.6%). Participants reported an average of 6.08 destabilizing factors (SD = 1.44). In multiple linear regression analyses LII was significantly related to increased substance use among participants (b= 0.08, p < 0.01), but not with anxiety or depression. An LII is an innovative approach to assess the relationship between OAWH’s mental health and social determinants of health.

Details

Title
Exploring Life Instability’s Relationship to the Mental Health of Older Adults With HIV
Author
Weinstein, Elliott 1 ; Harkness, Audrey 2 ; Ironson, Gail 3 ; Cho-Hee Shrader 2 ; Duncan, Dustin 4 ; Safren, Steven 3 

 Psychology, Miami, Florida, United States 
 Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Miami, Florida, United States 
 Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Florida, United States 
 Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, United States 
Pages
422-422
Publication year
2021
Publication date
2021
Publisher
Oxford University Press
e-ISSN
23995300
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3223102820
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.