Open AccessSocial support as a correlate of depression among people living with HIV and AIDS in Nigeria
Author(s) -
Dorothy Ebere Adimora,
Francisca N. Ogba,
Monica Obiageli Omeje,
Fidelis Eze Amaeze,
Friday Mamudu Adene
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
african health sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.391
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1729-0503
pISSN - 1680-6905
DOI - 10.4314/ahs.v21i3.9
Subject(s) - social support , medicine , depression (economics) , marital status , mental health , demography , psychiatry , promotion (chess) , gerontology , clinical psychology , population , psychology , environmental health , social psychology , sociology , politics , political science , law , economics , macroeconomics
Background: Depression is a highly prevalent mental disorder among PLHIV, whilst social support is important in disease prevention, health promotion, therapeutic measure especially for PLHIV.
Objectives: To ascertain the different types and sources of social support and their association with depression among PLHIV in Nigeria.
Materials and Methods: The study was a correlation with 2515 PLHIV in three teaching hospitals in South-Eastern Nige- ria. Data were collected between January to June, 2019 through interviews, using socio-demographic and Clinical Form and a Social Support Scale for PLHIV. SPSS-20 used for data analysis.
Results: It was shown that average scores of instrumental and emotional social supports (IESS) were satisfactory and not influenced by sex (p = 0.894; p = 0.496), education (p = 0.805; p = 0.182), marital status (p = 0.076; p = 0.446) and length of antiretroviral therapy (p = 0.510; p = 0.136). People diagnosed for less than three years had more instrumental support (p = 0.05) than those diagnosed over three years. The regression score also revealed a high predictive power of IESS on depression of PLHIV.
Conclusion: PLHIV have satisfactory social support, especially from family not residing in the same household and emo- tional social support from friends. Analyses identified knowledge gaps in the community regarding the social support re- ceived by PLHIV and their depression symptoms.
Keywords: Depression; instrumental support; emotional support; HIV; AIDS.