Nicholas Tarantino, Betty Norman, Anthony Enimil, Shadrack Osei Asibey, Charles Martyn-Dickens, Kate Guthrie, Awewura Kwara, Beth Bock, Matthew J Mimiaga, Larry Brown
{"title":"HIV symptom severity and associated factors among young people with HIV in Ghana.","authors":"Nicholas Tarantino, Betty Norman, Anthony Enimil, Shadrack Osei Asibey, Charles Martyn-Dickens, Kate Guthrie, Awewura Kwara, Beth Bock, Matthew J Mimiaga, Larry Brown","doi":"10.1080/09540121.2023.2299332","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><b>ABSTRACT</b>Adolescents and young adults (young people) with HIV (YPWH) often struggle with treatment self-management. Many have symptoms due to HIV disease, medication side-effects, or comorbid conditions. Our study investigated the severity of HIV-related symptoms among YPWH aged 18-24 with detectable viral loads from an HIV clinic in Ghana (<i>N</i> = 60) and potential correlates of severity across a range of factors. Results indicated that YPWH currently experienced, on average, 13 symptoms (SD = 12.33). Six of the 10 most common symptoms were from two domains: fatigue and psychological. The most common symptoms were headaches (62%), weakness (53%), and fear/worries (52%). No differences were observed in number or severity of symptoms between youth based on HIV transmission status. Bivariate correlates of symptom severity were found with six that remained significant or approached significance in a multivariate model predicting severity: living with a parent/guardian, higher perceived access to HIV care, and higher treatment readiness were associated with lower severity while greater travel time to the HIV clinic, psychological distress, and more missed clinic appointments were associated with higher severity. Our findings suggest that interventions to address symptoms among YPWH should be multilevel and include strategies (e.g., telehealth, home care) to increase access to care.</p>","PeriodicalId":48370,"journal":{"name":"Aids Care-Psychological and Socio-Medical Aspects of Aids/hiv","volume":" ","pages":"1462-1470"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11227599/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Aids Care-Psychological and Socio-Medical Aspects of Aids/hiv","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09540121.2023.2299332","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/1/7 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"HEALTH POLICY & SERVICES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACTAdolescents and young adults (young people) with HIV (YPWH) often struggle with treatment self-management. Many have symptoms due to HIV disease, medication side-effects, or comorbid conditions. Our study investigated the severity of HIV-related symptoms among YPWH aged 18-24 with detectable viral loads from an HIV clinic in Ghana (N = 60) and potential correlates of severity across a range of factors. Results indicated that YPWH currently experienced, on average, 13 symptoms (SD = 12.33). Six of the 10 most common symptoms were from two domains: fatigue and psychological. The most common symptoms were headaches (62%), weakness (53%), and fear/worries (52%). No differences were observed in number or severity of symptoms between youth based on HIV transmission status. Bivariate correlates of symptom severity were found with six that remained significant or approached significance in a multivariate model predicting severity: living with a parent/guardian, higher perceived access to HIV care, and higher treatment readiness were associated with lower severity while greater travel time to the HIV clinic, psychological distress, and more missed clinic appointments were associated with higher severity. Our findings suggest that interventions to address symptoms among YPWH should be multilevel and include strategies (e.g., telehealth, home care) to increase access to care.