Socio-Demographic Factors, Social Support, Quality of Life, and HIV/AIDS in Ghana

Abstract

The increase in the access to biomedical interventions for people living with HIV/AIDS in the developing world has not been adequately matched with the requisite psychosocial treatments to help improve the effectiveness of biomedical interventions. Therefore, in this study the author seeks to determine whether socio-demographic characteristics and social support are associated with quality of life in individuals diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in Ghana. A convenience sample of 300 HIV/AIDS support group members was obtained via cross-sectional design survey. The Medical Outcome Studies (MOS) HIV Health Survey, the MOS Social Support Survey (MOS-SSS), and demographic questionnaire instruments were used to assess quality of life, social support, and demographic information respectively. Multiple regression analysis showed that there was a positive association between overall social support and overall quality of life (r = .51). It also showed that being younger, male, attending support group meetings for over a year, and having ≥ 13 years of schooling related to higher quality of life. Implications of the findings for practice, policy, and research in Ghana and the rest of the developing world are discussed.

Keywords::

• Socio-demographic factors
• social support
• HIV/AIDS
• quality of life
• people living with HIV/AIDS in Ghana

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the developers of the quality of life and social support scales, Dr. Albert Wu and Drs. Cathy D. Sherbourne and Anita L. Stewart respectively, for granting the permission to use their scales. The author would like to finally express gratitude to those who responded to the survey. Finally, the authors are not aware of any conflict of interests related to this study.

Additional information

Funding

Many thanks go to the West African Research Association, Boston University (WARA) and the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) School of Social Work for partially funding and supporting this project.