Resilience and Quality of Life of People living with HIV/AIDS. A Cross Sectional Study at ART centre, Bagalkot, Karnataka

Abstract

Background: Resilience can be viewed as a defense mechanism that enables one to thrive amid distress. Therefore, improving resilience HIV infected people may be an important target for improving their quality of life. Aims:The aim of the study was to assess the resilience and quality of life of People living with HIV/AIDS and find the relationship between them. Methodology:The resilience and quality of life were measured using Brief Resilient Coping scale and WHOQOL-BREF scale respectively from a convenient sample of 100 People living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) attending ART centre, Bagalkot in a cross sectional survey. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.Findings: Majority (66%) of PLHIV had moderate resilience, 53% of PLHIV had moderate overall quality of life. A statistically significant positive correlation was found between the resilience and environmental domain scores of QoL ((r s =0.18, P<0.05) and total QoL scores ((r s =0.23, P<0.05). A significant association was found between the resilience scores and clinical variable duration of treatment with ART (χ 2 =10.56, p<0.05) and there was a significant association between total quality of life scores and duration of HIV illness (χ 2 =11.32, p<0.05) and duration of treatment with ART (χ 2 =11.38, p<0.05). Conclusion:Resilience has unconditional positive effect on all aspect of quality of life. PLHIV may benefit from intervention addressing their resilience.