Association Between The Sexual Activity And Acquired Immunity Markers In Women With Aids In A Brazilian Northeast County

Abstract

Background: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (Aids) comes along the years promoting inversion of the relation men/women, committing mainly the productive and reproductive life phase women. The sexuality, inherent upon human being, has in the expression of satisfaction of the sexual performance the possibility of providing several benefits in the quality of life of people, and CD4 + T-lymphocytes are the main marker of immunity of the women living with Aids. This study aims to show up the association between the CD4 + count and the sexual performance of women living with Aids in Imperatriz city.Methods and Findings: cross-sectional analytical study, carried out in 10 months, selecting women using antiretroviral therapy at least six months, including those older than 18, having sexual practice before having Aids , able to answer two questionnaires. Socio-demographic facts were recorded in own form, and sexual performance in the FSFI questionnaire. The sample based in 479 women, sampling error 5%, confidence interval 95%, alpha value ≤ 5%, included 149 women. Chi-square test was used to evaluate the association between the variables. The larger FSFI score means and medians coincided with the highest means of CD4 + T-lymphocyte count (Kruskal Wallis test, p = 0.0347), and a positive association between FSFI and the CD4+/CD8 ratio (Spearman test, p = 0.0264), confirming the alternative hypothesis. Conclusion:In this sample there was a positive association between sexual performance /sexual activity, with or without a condom, with CD4 + T-lymphocyte count and CD4+/CD8 ratio.