Physical symptoms and sleep disturbances activate coping strategies among HIV-infected Asian Americans: a pathway analysis

ABSTRACT

How to activate adaptive coping strategies has an important and practical meaning for the quality of life of people living with HIV (PLHIV); however, few studies have focused on the effects of sleep disturbances and HIV-related physical symptoms on coping strategies. The specific relationships among coping strategies, sleep disturbances and HIV-related physical symptoms were unknown. We performed a path analysis to examine the proposed model of relationships among sleep disturbances, physical symptoms, and coping strategies. A convenience sample of 69 HIV-positive Asian Americans in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City were recruited and data were collected on demographics, sleep disturbances, HIV-related physical symptoms, and coping strategies. Sleep disturbances directly affect maladaptive coping (β = 0.34), and physical symptoms directly affect adaptive coping (β = 0.30) and maladaptive coping (β = 0.24). Interventions designed to decrease sleep disturbances and physical symptoms should be developed to enhance adaptive coping and reduce maladaptive coping among Asian Americans with HIV.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV
• symptoms
• sleep disturbance
• coping strategies
• Asian Americans

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge all the study participants, without them, it is not possible to complete these projects.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This publication resulted (in part) from research supported by NINR [National Institute of Nursing Research] under Award Numbers [K23NR14107], NIMHD [National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities] [R03MD012210] and NIMH [National Institute of Mental Health] [P30MH058107] & [R25MH087217]. The contents of this article are solely the views of the authors and do not represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.