Fig. 1

Example of perceptions of social positions, HIV-related risk and HIV testing by social age and gender among ‘respectable midlife-older adults in urban and rural Malawi. This figure is illustrative using three examples of age stratification-life course variation by gender among midlife-older adults in urban and rural Malawi: (1) Social positions of older women as custodians of health in the family is related to women’s representation of HIV risk, such as caring for sick relatives and burial rituals which are considered their responsibility and so, represent a ‘respectable’ risk that can be acknowledged openly; (2) Social positions of respect and being leaders in the community relates to midlife-older adults perceptions that testing is inappropriate for their age this HIV risks resulting in the “othering” of HIV-related risk behaviours as those which are contrary to characteristics of midlife-older adults; and (3) Social positions among older women as faithful and trustworthy relates to men’s views that they are low risk, and because of their lack of knowledge about HIV serodiscordancy among couples, they do not think they need HIV testing