Felt Age Discrepancy Differs by HIV Serostatus: A Secondary Analysis.
Maulika Kohli, Lily Kamalyan, Elizabeth C Pasipanodya and 5 others
PMID 32604173WHAT IT FOUND
Adults with HIV felt younger than their age less often than adults without HIV.
Among adults with HIV, better self-rated physical health was associated with feeling younger.
Key findings
0172.3% of adults with HIV felt younger than their chronological age, significantly lower than the 92.9% among adults without HIV.
02Adults with HIV felt younger by fewer years than adults without HIV (mean 8.6 vs 11.3 years; p = .050).
03Among adults with HIV, better self-rated physical health was associated with feeling younger (β = 0.23, p < .001); among adults without HIV, the association was not significant (β = 0.09, p = .083).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This was a cross-sectional secondary analysis, so it cannot show that physical health causes a younger felt age or that felt age predicts health. Felt age was measured by one self-report question, and health-related quality of life was also self-reported, so shared reporting may influence associations. The sample was convenience recruited, HIV was relatively well controlled, and it was not demographically representative of people with HIV nationally. The age groups were not very old or young: participants were 36 to 65 years, with a mean age of 50.9 years. One extreme felt-age response was excluded, and the paper does not give a clear final analysed number for all comparisons. The main felt-age difference by HIV status was borderline (p = .050).
Declared interests
The authors report no real or perceived vested interests. The article was supported by NIH extramural research.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that improving physical health will make a person with HIV feel younger, or that feeling younger is a proven treatment target. The study measured felt age and self-rated physical health at one time, so it shows an association, not a cause-and-effect treatment effect.