Depression, anxiety, stress and stigma in informal caregivers of People Living with HIV (PLHIV)

Bibliographic Data

ID19442998
AuthorsRumana Khan (0000-0001-6399-7758, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Mangalore, Karnataka, corresponding author), Keshava Pai (0000-0003-0753-9685, Manipal Academy of Higher Education), Vaman Kulkarni (0000-0002-6518-2277, Manipal Academy of Higher Education), John Ramapuram (0000-0002-9441-5746, Manipal Academy of Higher Education)
Year2018
Volume30
Issue6
Pages722-726
Publication date2018-06-03
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAIDS Care (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0954-0121 • E-ISSN: 1360-0451
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09540121.2017.1418831
PMID29278924
OpenAlexW2778076882
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited20

Informal caregivers are unpaid individuals who help friends or family members who cannot fully care for themselves. However fulfilling the act of helping debilitated individuals, exposure to another person's traumatic experiences often results in psychological distress. Caregiver's stigma towards HIV worsens this. Hence, this study aims to assess the effect of stigma on the mental health of caregivers so that their needs for support can be determined. A cross sectional hospital based study was carried out in Mangalore, India on 150 informal caregivers of PLHIV. The HIV Stigma Scale was used to assess stigma and DASS-21 was used to assess depression, anxiety and stress. Of the 150 caregivers, 20% marked one or more items on the stigma scale. Frequency of depression, anxiety and stress was 46%, 27% and 8% respectively. Most caregivers who had stigma and anxiety were of those patients diagnosed for a shorter duration of time (≤5 years) n = 20, p = 0.05 and n = 26, p = 0.03 respectively. Spouses of PLHIV (n = 31, p = 0.005), sero-positive caregivers (n = 25, p = 0.03) and those living with patients (n = 39, p = 0.01) suffered most from anxiety. Stress was significantly associated with depression (83%, p = 0.007) and anxiety (66.6%, p = 0.001) in caregivers. In conclusion, more of depression and anxiety was observed among the participants than stress. Stigma was seen in 20% of the participants. Stigma was not significantly associated with depression anxiety and stress

Anxiety · Distress · Family medicine · Mental health · Psychiatry · Psychological distress · Clinical Psychology · Family Caregiving in Mental Illness · HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions · Medicine · Mental Health Treatment and Access · Psychology

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub