Quality of Life among HIV Positive Women Who Have Recently Given Birth: Impact of Social Support,Coping Style and violence.

Emily Das, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Rekha G. Daver M.D., Grant Medical College

HIV infected pregnant women have been the focus of considerable research related to biomedical issues of mother-to-child transmission. However, there have been few reports on the quality of life of new mothers with HIV. So an attempt was made to determine whether the Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) amongst HIV infected women was influenced by social support, coping style and violence. A total of 119 HIV infected women and their husbands were enrolled from the antenatal OPD of JJ Hospital where NACOs’ PMTCT project is currently in progress. The HRQOL did not correlate with age, HIV risk factor, education and occupation. Higher income, satisfaction with social support regardless of the sources of support, and problem-focussed coping were associated with a significantly better HRQOL scores. Where as emotion-focussed coping, avoidant coping and experience of domestic violence were predictors of poorer HRQOL scores.Looking at the gender differentials in HRQOL scales, it was found that husbands were having a better HRQOL scores than their wives.