Published In

HIV/AIDS - Research and Palliative Care

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2019

Subjects

HIV infections -- Prevention, Public health -- Research -- Citizen participation, HIV infections -- Iran -- Treatment

Abstract

Background: Stigma against HIV profoundly affects the quality of life (QOL) of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). We aimed to assess the factors associated with QOL in PLWHA in Iran, specifically HIV-related stigma, sociodemographic and clinical characteristics.

Methods: Two hundred PLWHA participated in this cross-sectional study. Data were collected using sociodemographic, stigma, and WHO-QOL-BREF questionnaires. Correlations, ANOVAs, and Student’s t-distribution tests were performed as bivariate analyses. We employed stepwise multiple linear regression analysis to explore the main factors associated with QOL domains.

Results: Six domains of QOL were negatively correlated with three domains of stigma (p < 0.001 for all). Stepwise multiple linear regression revealed that, after adjusting for con-founders, lack of healthcare insurance, having no basic knowledge of HIV/AIDs prior to diagnosis, low monthly income of participants and family, and stigma (blaming and distancing, discrimination, and fear) were associated with low mean score of different domains of QOL.

Conclusion: Our findings indicated that increasing HIV/AIDS-related stigma decreases QOL in PLWHA in Iran. Attention toward decreasing stigma, improving healthcare plan, and cultivating economic condition should be given high priority to ensure improvement in total QOL and corresponding domains in PLWHA’s life.

Rights

© 2019 Ebrahimi Kalan et al. This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Description

At the time of publication, Mitra Naseh was affiliated with Florida International University.

DOI

10.2147/HIV.S221512

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/35623

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