Subjective well-being and COVID-19 prevention practices among people living with HIV in Cape Town, South Africa

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 poses significant threats to the health of people with underlying chronic conditions, including people living with HIV. The association between subjective well-being and practicing COVID-19 preventive behaviours among people living with HIV is yet to be empirically tested. The objective of the current study was to test the hypothesis that subjective well-being would be associated with engaging in greater COVID-19 preventive behaviours. A sample of 200 women and 72 men (mean age 38.1, SD = 10.4) receiving HIV treatment at a clinic in Cape Town, South Africa completed interview administered surveys of health behaviours and three dimensions of subjective well-being: emotional, social and psychological well-being. Hierarchical regression models were performed to test subjective well-being as predictors of COVID-19 preventive behaviours adjusting for age, sex, education, TB history, antiretroviral therapy adherence, and concern about contracting COVID-19. Results showed that psychological well-being, along with concerns over COVID-19, predicted greater COVID-19 preventive behaviours over and above the other variables in the model, accounting for 9.2% of the variance. Results support incorporating interventions to foster psychological well-being into existing clinical services for people living with HIV to improve clusters of health behaviours.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• South Africa
• HIV treatment
• subjective well-being

Acknowledgements

This study was approved by the University of Connecticut Institutional Review Board and the South African Medical Research Council Research Ethics Committe. All procedures were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) under Grant R01MH19913.