[Social support for 330 HIV/AIDS patients under antiretroviral treatment and related factors in Wuhan].

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the current status of social support for HIV/AIDS patients under antiretroviral treatment (ART) and related factors in Wuhan.

METHODS

Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS) was used to analyze the current status of social support for HIV/AIDS patients under ART in Wuhan. Student's t test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple linear regression model were used to identify the related factors.

RESULTS

The scores of subjective support, objective support, utilization of social support, and overall social support for 330 HIV/AIDS patients were significant lower than the national norm (P < 0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that the subjective support (β' = -0.260), objective support (β' = -0.196) and overall social support (β' = -0.141) for the patients who were unmarried, divorced or widowed were worse than those for the patients who were married (P < 0.05). The patients with higher educational level had more objective support (β' = 0.250) and utilization of social support (β' = 0.232) than those with lower educational level (P < 0.05). The subjective support for patients without HIV related symptoms in the past two weeks was better than those with HIV related symptoms (β' = 0.232, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

The current status of social support for HIV/AIDS patients under ART in Wuhan was worse than that for healthy people. More attention should be paid to HIV/AIDS patients with worse social support.