Background: HIV self-management is a lifetime and central task for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH). To date, there is little evidence to identify the related factors of self-management in PLWH from China.
Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the status and related factors of self-management in PLWH from the Liangshan area of Sichuan Province, China.
Patients and methods: A total of 322 PLWH were recruited from August to December 2017 in the study. Demographics characteristics and disease-related data were documented for each participant, social support was measured by the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey (MOS-SSS-C), and self-management was evaluated by the HIV Self-Management Scale. Descriptive statistics analysis, independent Student’s t -test, one-way ANOVA, Spearman rank correlation, and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the data.
Results: The total score of HIV self-management was 38.26±7.17. Significant differences in self-management scores were found among the subgroups of different education level, marital status, nation, religion, resident place, occupation, infection route, symptom, research site, and household per capita monthly income. Self-management was positively significantly correlated with social support. Multiple regression analysis identified that nation, resident place, gender, marital status, and social support were the contributors of HIV self-management.
Conclusion: The study demostrated that self-management in Yi Autonomous Prefecture was relatively low. The results indicate that the associated factors of self-management should be considered to develop effective intervention to improve the self-management of PLWH.
Keywords: self-management, self-care, HIV, HIV/AIDS, China