There is a need to sustain African people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHAs) in good health for as long as possible, while at the same time preventing further risks of HIV transmission to self and others. Living with a HIV diagnosis creates what I have called HIV status stress. Using a HIV Status Stress Scale and an Adherence to HIV/AIDS Treatment and Prevention Scale that were developed for this investigation, along with two existing measures--the Sources of Social Support Scale and the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale, this study sought to determine adherence to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention among 212 participants randomly selected from two non-profit organizations in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. Study findings highlight the direct effect of HIV status stress on decreased adherence to treatment and prevention regimes and on increased sexual risk behaviors. Informal social support was found to buffer the impact of HIV status stress on sexual risk. These findings hold important implications for public health and social work practice.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-01042005-140642 |
| Date | 11 January 2005 |
| Creators | Kaijage, Theresa J. |
| Contributors | Dr. Sandra Wexler |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-01042005-140642/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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