Objective: To investigate the current status of social support for HIV/AIDS patients under antiretroviral treatment (ART) and related factors in Wuhan.
Methods: Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS) was used to analyze the current status of social support for HIV/AIDS patients under ART in Wuhan. Student's t test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple linear regression model were used to identify the related factors.
Results: The scores of subjective support, objective support, utilization of social support, and overall social support for 330 HIV/AIDS patients were significant lower than the national norm (P < 0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that the subjective support (β' = -0.260), objective support (β' = -0.196) and overall social support (β' = -0.141) for the patients who were unmarried, divorced or widowed were worse than those for the patients who were married (P < 0.05). The patients with higher educational level had more objective support (β' = 0.250) and utilization of social support (β' = 0.232) than those with lower educational level (P < 0.05). The subjective support for patients without HIV related symptoms in the past two weeks was better than those with HIV related symptoms (β' = 0.232, P < 0.05).
Conclusion: The current status of social support for HIV/AIDS patients under ART in Wuhan was worse than that for healthy people. More attention should be paid to HIV/AIDS patients with worse social support.