THE SURVIVAL EXPERIENCE OF OLDER AND YOUNGER ADULTS WITH AIDS - IS THERE A GROWING GAP IN SURVIVAL

Older people with HIV infection die faster than younger counterparts, but it is not known whether age-associated survival is changing over t ime. The authors used the Centers far Disease Control data set of adul t cases of AIDS reported from January 1, 1981, to December 31, 1994, t o study age-associated differences in survival by year of diagnosis. A total of 433,354 adults with AIDS were reported during this interval. Of these, 10.3% were younger than age 50. In 1983-1984, median surviv al for older and younger people was 153 versus 274 days, respectively. By 1991-1992, median survival had improved for both groups-396 and 73 1 days, respectively However, the relative and absolute gap in surviva l grew. While a substantially larger proportion of older adults died w ithin 90 days of diagnosis, the overall trend of an increasing age-ass ociated gap in survival remained when these were excluded from the ana lysis. Older and younger people with AIDS have achieved prolonged surv ival, but the age-associated gap in survival has grown.