Assessment of perceived social support and its relationship with health-related quality of life in HIV/AIDS patients visiting a Teaching Hospital in Pakistan

HIV/AIDS is one of the most devastating diseases humanities has ever faced. AIDS patients not only require effective treatment for physical discomfort but also require social support to help them address difficulties in life and relieve their psychological anxiety and uneasiness. This study aims to analyze the status of perceived social support and health quality among AIDS patients in medical institutes of Lahore, Pakistan. It was cross sectional study, in which 101 patients of age ≥18 years, presenting with AIDS to Jinnah Hospital, confirmed on serology and fulfilling the selection criteria, were enrolled, using informed consent, through non probability convenience sampling. A questionnaire comprising all study variables was designed to collect data. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS version 24 and p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. The total number of participants included in our study were 101 in which 77(76.2%) were males and 24(23.8) were females. The most frequent age group was found to be 30 to 39 years with 48(47.5%) participants. 47(46.5%) participants belonged to rural areas while 54(53.5%) belonged to urban areas. The mean scores calculated for social support and physical and mental components of SF12v2 were MSPSS=53.84+15.47, PCS=40.41+10.52 and MCS=40.30+10.01, respectively. Both the MCS and PCS show a positive correlation with perceived social support. Perceived social support was more strongly positively related to physical health (PCS), r= .271, p< .01 than to mental health (MCS), r=.159, p< .01. This study revealed that the social support level among people living with HIV/AIDS was generally low. It was found that there is a positive association between perceived social support, and physical and mental aspects of health of PLWHA. It was also identified that perceived social support was more strongly related to physical health of PLWHA than mental health. These findings suggest the need for better social support system for PLWHA.