Psychosocial Health of an African Group before Awareness of HIV Status: A Comparative Study

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the psychosocial health profiles of people with and without HIV before they learned their infection status. A total of 1,025 participants (males = 386, females = 639, age range = between 32 and 87, infected = 153) completed questionnaires on psychosocial well-being and were tested for HIV. Participants who were infected with HIV had a lower sense of coherence and a lower capacity to succeed in joint community activities than the participants infected with HIV. Some differences were detected between rural and urban areas. It is concluded that mental health and quality of life may be compromised in some ways even before HIV status is known and overt symptoms of infection noticed. Proactive interventions on community level to promote mental health and prevent problems are suggested focusing amongst others on coping skills, relationship building, and finding meaning and engagement in community activities.

Beyond Ryff's scale: Comprehensive measures of eudaimonic well‐being in clinical populations. A systematic review

“…This is congruent with measures applied in populations dealing with mental health disorders. Five studies used Diener's FS (Baker, Rickard, Tamplin, & Roddy, ; Gimpel et al, ; Lyons, Heywood, & Rozbroj, ; Robertson, Davies, & Winefield, ; Strober, ), four studies (Langeland et al, ; Maré et al, ; Timmerman et al, ; Trompetter et al, ) used Keyes' MHC (Keyes, , , ), two investigations (Twemlow et al, ; Williams et al, ) used GCOS (Deci & Ryan, ), and one (Terrill et al, ) used the OHS (Peterson et al, ).…”

“…When it comes to the MHC (Keyes, , , ), the short form consisting of 14 items was used in all of the studies in various countries and languages. Therefore, the MHC was translated into Dutch ( n = 2; Timmerman et al, ; Trompetter et al, ), Norwegian ( n = 1; Langeland et al, ), and Setswana ( n = 1; Maré et al, ) and used in the Netherlands, Norway, and South Africa, respectively. The populations assessed included patients with moderate to severe psoriasis (Langeland et al, ), adults infected with HIV/AIDS (Maré et al, ), living kidney donors (Timmerman et al, ), and adults with self‐rated chronic pain (Trompetter et al, ).…”

“…Therefore, the MHC was translated into Dutch ( n = 2; Timmerman et al, ; Trompetter et al, ), Norwegian ( n = 1; Langeland et al, ), and Setswana ( n = 1; Maré et al, ) and used in the Netherlands, Norway, and South Africa, respectively. The populations assessed included patients with moderate to severe psoriasis (Langeland et al, ), adults infected with HIV/AIDS (Maré et al, ), living kidney donors (Timmerman et al, ), and adults with self‐rated chronic pain (Trompetter et al, ). Diverse study designs were applied: cross‐sectional comparative designs ( n = 1; Maré et al, ), longitudinal comparative designs with matched controls ( n = 1; Timmerman et al, ), uncontrolled trials with prospective designs ( n = 1; Langeland et al, ), and RCTs ( n = 1; Trompetter et al, ).…”

“…The populations assessed included patients with moderate to severe psoriasis (Langeland et al, ), adults infected with HIV/AIDS (Maré et al, ), living kidney donors (Timmerman et al, ), and adults with self‐rated chronic pain (Trompetter et al, ). Diverse study designs were applied: cross‐sectional comparative designs ( n = 1; Maré et al, ), longitudinal comparative designs with matched controls ( n = 1; Timmerman et al, ), uncontrolled trials with prospective designs ( n = 1; Langeland et al, ), and RCTs ( n = 1; Trompetter et al, ). The measure was used in different analyses.…”

“…One study compared the psychosocial health in individuals infected with HIV/AIDS and non‐infected individuals before they were told about their infection status (Maré et al, ). The MHC (Keyes, , , ) was used as an indicator for well‐being.…”