AIDS and Older Persons: The View from Thailand

Although little attention has been paid to older adults in the context of the global AIDS epidemic, they not only can contract HIV themselves but, far more commonly, they experience multiple consequences as in their role as parents of younger adults who become ill and die from AIDS. Older persons also make significant contributions to the well-being of younger adults who suffer from AIDS by playing a major role in caregiving to their infected sons and daughters and by assuming the role of foster parents for their grandchildren who are left behind as AIDS orphans emphasizing the consequences for and the contributions by older persons in their role as AIDS parents. This paper addresses the impact of the AIDS epidemic for older adults based on recent research in Thailand. The analysis is based primarily on interviews with key informants about individual AIDS cases and their families; direct survey interviews with AIDS parents and a comparison group of older persons; and in-depth interviews with AIDS parents. The first two permit quantitative analysis while the third is suited for qualitative analysis.