A Model of Quality of Life of Women Living With HIV

Abstract

Data collected from 224 women living with HIV were analyzed to study quality of life. Quality of life was operationalized as mental health and physical functioning. A structural equation model was tested. The final model demonstrates good fit to data (χ² = 17.63, p = .48). Mental health was directly and positively associated with being born outside of Canada, social support, and physical functioning but negatively associated with the proportion of people aware of serostatus and experienced discrimination. Physical functioning was directly and positively associated with being born outside of Canada and social support; however, it was negatively associated with time since diagnosis. The proportion of people aware of serostatus was negatively associated with being born outside of Canada and being a mother. Social work interventions aimed at improving quality of life in women living with HIV should target contexts of serostatus disclosure to minimize HIV discrimination and to improve social support sources without compromising existing ones.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV/AIDS
• quality of life
• Quebec
• structural equations model
• women

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Mylène Fernet and Martine Hébert for their comments on preliminary versions of this article. This article was made possible by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) (Projet Maya funding), the Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Société et la Culture (Étude provinciale funding), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Société et la Culture, and the Faculté des Sciences Humaines de l'Université du Québec à Montréal (masters grant, M.B.).

Notes

Note. N = 224, *p < .05.