From Stigma to Frailty-Psychosocial Pathways among People Aging with HIV in China: A Cross-Sectional Study.

ABSTRACT:Our study examined how perceived stigma influences multidimensional frailty among older adults living with HIV. In this cross-sectional study, 591 older people living with HIV (PWH) were recruited from a designated HIV institute in Shanghai, China, between December 2022 and October 2023. The participants completed face-to-face surveys that assessed five domains: perceived stigma, social support, social isolation, loneliness, and multidimensional frailty. SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 23.0 were used to conduct path analysis and examine the relationships between these variables. Perceived stigma had a significant effect on multidimensional frailty (β = -0.2591), with a small direct effect (β = -0.09), and the majority had an indirect effect via depression (β = -0.1067) and social isolation (β = -0.0188). This is one of the initial studies to show how perceived stigma can affect the psychological and social correlates of PWH to further contribute to multidimensional frailty among older PWH in China.