CAREGIVING AND HIV+/AIDS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: CONTEXT AND CULTURE IN THE STRESS AND COPING PROCESS

Abstract

In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), older adults in unprecedented numbers have been recruited into providing care to persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) across the lifespan. The literature on older adult (OA) caregiving in SSA is fragmented across several disciplines and lacks a unified theoretical framework, we use a revised version of Knight and Sayegh’s (2009) sociocultural stress and coping model examine the literature on older adult caregivers to PLWHA. An exhaustive literature review identified 68 articles on OA caregiving in SSA. The SSA experience requires understanding that OAs are often taking care of multiple family members and are often themselves in need of care. Key findings suggest that population aging and HIV/AIDS deplete the amount of social, cultural, and structural capital available to OA caregivers. Interventions which focus on collective solutions to problems such as food insecurity may be needed at both the extended family and the village level.