The effect of nurse initiated nutritional counselling with hatha yoga on nutritional status of HIV infected adolescents: Randomized controlled trial

Context: The adolescence is a period of fabulous changes made in growth as physically, emotionally, and socially; because of deprived nutrition, these changes become declined and more complicated for an adolescent diagnosed with HIV. Aim: The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of nurse-initiated nutritional counseling with Hatha yoga on nutritional status of HIV-infected adolescents. Setting and Design: This was randomized controlled trial research with a wait-list control group design adopted in selected antiretroviral therapy centers in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Materials and Methods: Through simple random technique, a total of 388 HIV-infected adolescents were divided into experimental (195) and control (193) groups. The data were collected from samples/caregivers through a structured nutritional assessment questionnaire, and anthropometric measurements were also noted. The nutritional counseling was given to experimental group alone and asanas were demonstrated by a researcher. The data were collected from both groups at 0, 3rd, and 6th month intervals. Statistical Analysis Used: Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation and inferential statistics such as Chi-square, ANOVA “F”-test, and Bonferroni t-test. Results: According to the “Z” score, the baseline assessment showed that 28% in the experimental and 29% in the control group of HIV-infected adolescents were malnourished, and the remaining percentage was within normal. However, on 6th month evaluation, it reduced to 19% and 28%, respectively. Hence, nutritional gain score was increased to 9.3% in the experimental and 1.5% in the control group with 95% confidence interval. Conclusion: The motivational counseling along with Hatha yoga has effectiveness to increase nutritional status of HIV-infected adolescents in the experimental group than in the control group.