https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7349-6014
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ABSTRACT
People living with HIV (PLHIV) experience adverse psychological outcomes including depressive symptoms. This study examined the association between religious coping (Brief RCOPE) and depressive symptoms (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale [HADS-D]) among 138 PLHIV in Ghana. The results indicated that 125 (90.6%) and 50 (36.2%) respondents reported using positive religious coping and experienced depressive symptoms respectively. A negative relationship (r = −.209, n = 138, p<.05) between positive religious coping and depressive symptoms was observed. Negative religious coping was found to positively associate (r = .025, n = 138, p>.05) with depressive symptoms. Thus, positive religious coping was associated with less depressive symptoms compared to negative religious coping. The study highlights the putative contributions of religious coping to the mental health outcomes of PLHIV in Ghana. Additionally, this study accentuates the clinical relevance of assessing depressive symptoms, promoting positive religious coping strategies, and designing culturally targeted interventions for PLHIV.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the support given by the staff, nurses, medical doctors, and patients at the CCTH ART clinic in Cape Coast, Ghana, during the period of the data collection. The authors are grateful to Daniel Adom-Fynn and Rachel Crankson for their immense support as research assistant. The authors are most grateful to the two anonymous reviewers and Dorcas Obiri-Yeboah (MB, ChB, PhD) for their time commitment in reviewing this manuscript and for providing suggested corrections, and critiques that helped shaped this paper.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).