An assessment of impact in care giving by old people in households with

Background
HIV/AIDS pandemic has had devastating social, health, economic and psychological impacts on persons with AIDS and their parents. AIDS parents represent one of the largest groups of persons that are socially impacted by the epidemic. Yet, despite the fact that their adult children’s illness and death affect them in many consequential and adverse ways, they have attracted little attention from national and international agencies.

Methods
There were twenty four In-depth Interviews and four Focus Group Discussions with a purposive sample of participants. Group members discussed caregiving roles in households with PLWHIV/AIDS, health strains, social, economic and adherence to treatment by patients and caregivers. Analyses were carried out using Atlas.ti.

Results
Analysis revealed that despite key informants and participants being knowledgeable about caregiving roles, mothers were identified as main caregivers. The majority expressed unfavourable attitudes toward gender domination behaviours in caregiving situations. Since many parents were in older age, it made them particularly vulnerable to physical strains associated with caregiving.

Conclusions
Older people are rarely visible to government and NGO agencies, though caring for AIDS adult children has greater impact on health of caregivers