COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Older adults with HIV or AIDS can benefit from a telephone support group designed to help them cope with their illness, according to a study.

The U.S. AIDS population is aging, but there is a gap in care because most support groups are geared toward younger people, said Ohio University health psychologist Timothy Heckman, who conducted the study with a team of researchers.

“I think as the newer medications have evolved, we’re seeing people live longer periods of time,” Heckman said. “It’s a population that’s growing.”

AIDS support groups in Ohio, Arizona, New York and Pennsylvania recruited participants for the study. Small groups were formed and met with a social worker for 12 conference calls, each of which lasted one hour.

Elaine, who asked to be identified only by her middle name, is one of about 70 participants in the Project Empower study.

Loneliness prompted the 56-year-old Clermont County resident to sign up last year for telephone therapy for older adults with HIV or AIDS.

“It was the fact that I wanted to meet somebody my age,” said Elaine, who contracted HIV from her husband. “I wanted to be able to walk away and not feel alone.”

The study is funded by a two-year, $435,000 grant from the National Institute on Aging.

“The older adults who went through the intervention said they felt they could cope better,” Heckman said.

Heckman presented his findings Saturday at the National Association on HIV Over Fifty conference in Scottsdale, Ariz.

About 18 percent of the 12,698 people living with HIV/AIDS in Ohio are older than 50, according to statistics released in March by the Ohio Department of Health. That compares with 12 percent of 9,716 Ohioans with HIV/AIDS in 1999.

Nationally, about 11 percent of the 816,149 AIDS cases reported in 2001 to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were in people older than 50. Agency officials said comparable statistics for HIV are not available because there is no national reporting system in place.

Heckman hopes participants will continue to use the skills they learned. “We’re still following our participants to see if these changes are maintained,” he said.

Elaine, who has completed her therapy, said she practices some of the techniques. She now turns to her sister for support.

“I’m able to share with her,” she said. “I have learned not to hold things in.”