JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has the most growing elderly population affected by both HIV and other comorbidities compared to other regions globally, highlights from (Mwangala et al.,2021). United Nations agrees to the use of age 60 years to refer to elderly population in Africa, even though 65yrs is the chronical age used to define elderly population in the high-income countries (Kowal, Wolf 2000). In this scoping review “geriatric” or “elderly” population refers to those aged 60yrs and above. Aboderin (2015) alludes that the elderly population living with both HIV and comorbidities in SSA is predicted to increase from 42.6 million to 160 million in 2050. Furthermore Aboderin (2010) point out that the healthcare services for this population are mostly delivered at Public Health system at primary care level. Despite the expected increase in the number of elderly populations who are living with both HIV and comorbidities that will require primary care predominantly healthcare workers (HCWs) in SSA, including South Africa (SA) receive little or no training of elderly or geriatric patients (Butler, I., & Tipping, B. (2024). As a result, there is a little awareness of age-related health elderly generally and furthermore elderly population living with both HIV and comorbid. The World Health Organization call for the alignment of the health system with the health needs of the elderly population in the Global Strategy Plan on Ageing and Health (Beard,2016). Furthermore, African Union in the African continent echoed African Union Policy Framework and Plan on Ageing (Union A. African Health Strategy 2016-2030). There is limited research showcasing the development and implementation of the tailored specialised care for the elderly population in SSA and the public Health system in the African continent have been unable to plan adequately to cater for the health needs of the elderly population (Naidoo &van Wyk, 2019).

Objective:

To identify, explore and map out the literature on the development and implementation of tailored specialised care for the elderly population living with both HIV and comorbid and identify the best practice for South African setting. It is anticipated that the results of the scoping review will influence the government, ministry of Health and policy makers to prioritise the development and implementation of tailored specialised care for the geriatric /elderly population within the public health system in the three spheres of heath, which are Primary healthcare, secondary healthcare (regional hospital) and tertiary healthcare (Academic hospitals) spheres. Furthermore, the results will assist the academic experts to identify geriatric competencies and skills and to develop geriatric curricula, that will be able to close the gap and meets the health needs of the geriatric in generally and the elderly population living with both HIV and comorbidities in the health care system

Methods:

This Protocol is for the systematic review of the literature reporting a tailored specialised care for the elderly population living with both HIV and Non-communicable diseases in SSA, South Africa, Canada, USA and France. The scoping review method was selected as an aim to outline different type of evidence, the gaps, describe and identify emerging knowledge on this area of interest in the Low and Middle-Income countries (LMIC)which is South Africa and other SSA and High-Income countries (HIC) which are Canada, USA and France. The proposed review will be guided by the methodological framework of Arksey and O’Malley (Arksey, O’Malley 2005). The steps that will be followed in this review are: I. Identify the research question II. Inclusion and exclusion criteria III. Search Strategy IV. Selection of eligible studies V. Charting the data and VI. Collation and summarising the results VII. Reporting VIII. Ethical Considerations Quality appraisal will not be done as this review aims to map all research activities ni this field

Results:

The expected results of the scoping review will offer an in-depth overview of implementation of the tailored specialised chronic care for the elderly population living with both HIV and comorbidities of NCDs in SSA.

Conclusions:

Future research should concentrate on assessing the effectiveness of integrated models and investigating the role of community-based and social support systems in improving care outcomes. Also, by highlighting knowledge gaps the study will provide the researchers, policy maker, Healthcare experts and Academics with the new venture of research is needed. This can incorporate exploration of innovative strategies, benchmarks of best practices of effective healthcare models, assessing long-term outcomes of existing programs and examining the role of other healthcare support systems that enhances the quality of life for the elderly population. Clinical Trial: Not applicable