Multimorbidity in elderly people living with HIV: how do general practitioners manage?

The occurrence of multimorbidity concerns more and more people living with HIV (PLWHIV) and its frequency increases with age. General practitioners should occupy a central place in the out-of-hospital follow-up of elderly PLWHIV with multimorbidities. Our study aims to understand the actual position of general practitioners and the barriers they encounter in the management of elderly PLWHIV with multimorbidities.

This sub-study of the ANRS EP66-SEPTAVIH sancillary tudy, which assesses frailty in PLWHIV aged 70 years and over, is based on in-depth interviews with general practitioners and PLWHIV aged 70 years and over. The data were processed manually. Themes and sub-themes were identified and tabulated before being subjected to a cross-sectional thematic analysis.

Based on 30 interviews conducted between April 2020 and June 2021 with 10 general practitioners and 20 PLWHIV aged 70 years and over and with multiple diseases, this study identifies the difficulties that general practitioners encounter in fully participating in the care. The follow-up of these patients is characterized by symbolic partitions between groups of professionals: organizational fragmentation between general practitioners and specialists, fear of encroaching on the role of the other health professionals, and frequent absence of formalization of roles in the coordination of care.

In order to promote optimal follow-up and improve the experience of elderly PLWHIV, it is important that the role of each stakeholder be better defined for better shared follow-up.