Profile of elderly people with AIDS in Brazil

OBJECTIVES: Checking the profile of elderly patients with AIDS through some variable such as gender, race, education level and age, reported in southern Brazil and in Chapecó in the period from 1980 to 2009, who acquired AIDS through sexual transmission. METHODS: This was an observational, descriptive and cross study, whose data were obtained by consulting the Datasus, and then arranged in sheets through the operational program Excel, and a cross was made with this data. RESULTS: During the period between 1980 and 2009 there was an increase in AIDS diagnoses in elderly people in the studied region, and that those who had a higher prevalence of infection were men, heterosexuals, whites, aged between 60 and 69 years old and education level between 1 and 3 years (low education). This same behavior was repeated in Chapecó however, there were only elderly people contaminated by AIDS in 1995 and in the period between 2005 and 2009, the education level with the highest prevalence was 4-7 years followed by 8 to 11 years, although in this period there was a higher prevalence of elderly people between aged 70 and 79 years old. CONCLUSIONS: The sexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), in elderly population in southern Brazil and Chapecó, had an increase in the number of diagnoses during the studied period, especially in the males, heterosexual, white, between 60 and 69 years old and low education level.