Perceived Stigma and Quality of Life Among Women Living with HIV/AIDS

• Main Authors: Nooshin Zarei, Hassan Joulaei, Mohammad Fararouei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Shiraz University of Medical Sciences 2017-01-01
• Series: Women’s Health Bulletin
• Subjects: perceived stigma; quality of life; hiv; women
• Online Access: http://womenshealthbulletin.sums.ac.ir/article_45249_e368f4a2d70a7a9181345d2921bb9f76.pdf

<strong>Background:</strong> Quality of life (QoL) is a broad construct and can be influenced by many factors. Perceived stigma is inevitable in patients with HIV. Therefore, it is an important factor to understand their QoL. <strong>Objectives:</strong> The current study was conducted to investigate the relationship between the perceived stigma among HIV-positive women and their QoL in Shiraz, Iran. <strong>Patients and Methods:</strong> In this quantitative study, 110 HIV-positive women were selected by simple random sampling method. A questionnaire was designed and used as a tool for data collection. The questionnaire included demographic information, internal stigma scale, and the ACTG short form-21 (SF-21) for measuring QoL. Data were collected from March to August 2015 and analyzed using t- test, Pearson’s correlations, and the multiple regression test with the SPSS software version 21. <strong>Results:</strong> The mean age of the women was 37.86 ± 9.03 years. Most of the participants were infected with HIV/AIDS through sex with their spouse (78.2%). About one-third of the women had physical symptoms (29.1%) of the HIV disease. The prevalence rate of perceived stigma in the sample was 69.7%. Quality of life was significantly different in terms of employment status, emotional support and physical symptoms (P < 0.05). <strong>Conclusions:</strong> A higher level of perceived stigma among HIV-positive women is associated with a considerable decrease in all QoL dimensions. Thus, more efforts should be considered to reduce the perceived stigma and improve the QoL of such patients.