Forms of social support and their relationships to mental health in HIV-positive persons

Abstract

A baseline assessment for an HIV health services study recruited 626 people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in New York city who participated in an interview querying social support, health status, substance use, and mental health. Data were modeled using hierarchical classes (HICLAS) analysis. HICLAS discriminated items reflecting general support and assistance vs. support from an important person in one's life who was named in addition to other family members and friends. HICLAS then identified respondents who reported that they had general support and assistance, support from an important person, both types, or neither type of support. Having one or more important persons as part of the respondent's social network was associated with more positive mental (but not physical) health than having only general support and assistance, or no support at all. Results argue for differentiating support obtained through one's relationship with an important person.

Keywords:

• social support
• mental health
• HIV/AIDS

Acknowledgments

This research supported by NIMH 5R01-MH063045 (Rapkin, B., PI). The authors wish to thank Jan Hudis for her comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript.

Notes

1. The two remaining items were being a smoker and experiencing HIV symptoms.

2. A cluster analysis (Lounsbury et al., 2006) identified four groups of agencies. This grouping was not related to MHI, F(3, 622) = 1.34, p = 0.26, or to important person, χ²(3) = 4.91, p = 0.18.