Assessing Women Caregiving Role to People Living With HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, West Africa

Abstract

HIV/AIDS scourge remains high in most countries of sub-Saharan Africa such as Nigeria, which is home to about 3.3 million HIV positive individuals and represents the second largest burden of HIV/AIDS care, treatment and demand worldwide after South Africa. Anti-retroviral treatment options though a welcome development, has increased the number of people living with this chronic illness, and most of them depend on family members for physical and emotional support. Traditional gender norms in Nigeria ensure that legitimately, women and girls are the first options for caregiving roles. This mandatory role has in turn imposed psychosocial disruption in the lives of female family members in Calabar, Nigeria. This descriptive study utilized convenient sampling technique, Zarit Burden Interview scale and semistructured questionnaires for data collection (260 respondents), and data analyses were achieved using SPSS16.0. The study showed that a significant (p < .05) proportion of women (91%) were involved in providing care, including children from 10 years and above. Caregivers had minimal social support which increased the burden they experienced. The need for policy that recognizes and supports female caregivers ("silent cornerstone") to reduce burden and ensure high quality care of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Nigeria is advocated.Keywords female caregivers, PLWHA, burden of caregiving, Nigeria 2 SAGE Open consequences from physically and emotionally demanding work of caregiving. The physical tasks performed by the caregivers transcend minor to complex tasks, which is similar to those carried out by paid health or social service providers. These impart a great degree of burden on the caregivers especially, as they combine the caregiving services with their official roles in the society. Caregiving has increased the burden of care on many households particularly the females, by worsening their economic status and subjecting them to imminent poverty. The need for heal thcare system and government to promulgate policies that will support female caregivers and also enhance quality of care to PLWHA in Nigeria becomes imperative. This study therefore highlights the extent of burden experienced by female caregivers compared to male counterparts and the support available to all caregivers of PLWHA in Calabar Municipality, Nigeria. Women and Burden of CareWomen constitute about 50% of the people living with HIV today worldwide (WHO, 2013). In 2007, the prevalence of HIV infection had been on men than women (UNAIDS, 2008), but with the turn of events women now bear the burden of this devastating disease more than men (WHO/ UNICEF/ UNFPA/World Bank, 2010). In sub-Saharan Africa, women constitute 60% of people living with HIV and the proportion of women living with HIV has been increasing in the last 10 years (WHO, 2013). These figures vindicate the words of Lewis (2005) that HIV/AIDS in Africa has a "female face." Apart from biological vulnerability of women to HIV, the African traditional gender norms stipula...

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