Hiv/aids awareness of individuals above fifty years: health education

International Journal of Development Research

Volume: 
7
Article ID: 
10830
5 pages
Research Article

Hiv/aids awareness of individuals above fifty years: health education

Claudia Regina de Andrade Arrais Rosa, Allan Kardec Barros, Samara Rodrigues de Sousa, Simony Fabíola Lopes Nunes, Daniel Costa Duarte, Francisco Dimitre Rodrigues Pereira Santos, Raisa Ramos dos Anjos, Nilviane Pires Silva Sousa and Pedro Mário Lemos da Silva

Abstract: 

With the increase in the number of elderly people infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), there is a clear need to create new strategies and plan effective actions aimed at controlling the epidemic, using health education. This study was performed to develop an educational intervention on HIV/AIDS for a group of elderly users of a basic health unit. The sample comprised people aged over 50 years who were users of the Unified Health System. Interviews were conducted with 14 elderly people aged 52–73 years. The following themes emerged were employed: discovery of prior knowledge about HIV/AIDS, elderly people seeking marriage as a form of prevention, and health education about HIV/AIDS. Only with the awareness and goodwill of all health professionals will we be able to reduce the population of elderly people vulnerable to HIV using knowledge as the main tool and health education as a strategy of application and diffusion.

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