Psychological Distress Among Minority and Low-Income Women Living With HIV

ObjectivesWomen living with HIV in the UK are an ethnically diverse group with significant psychosocial challenges. Increasing numbers are reaching older age. We describe psychological and socioeconomic factors among women with HIV in England aged 45–60 and explore associations with ethnicity.MethodsAnalysis of cross-sectional data on 724 women recruited to the PRIME Study. Psychological symptoms were measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire 4 and social isolation with a modified Duke-UNC Functional Social Support Scale.ResultsBlack African (BA) women were more likely than Black Caribbean or White British (WB) women to have a university education (48.3%, 27.0%, 25.7%, respectively, p<0.001), but were not more likely to be employed (68.4%, 61.4%, 65.2%, p=0.56) and were less likely to have enough money to meet their basic needs (56.4%, 63.0%, 82.9%, p<0.001). BA women were less likely to report being diagnosed with depression than WB women (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 0.40, p<0.001) but more likely to report current psychological distress (aOR 3.34, p<0.05).ConclusionsWe report high levels of poverty, psychological distress and social isolation in this ethnically diverse group of midlife women with HIV, especially among those who were BA. Despite being more likely to experience psychological distress, BA women were less likely to have been diagnosed with depression suggesting a possible inequity in access to mental health services. Holistic HIV care requires awareness of the psychosocial needs of older women living with HIV, which may be more pronounced in racially minoritised communities, and prompt referral for support including psychology, peer support and advice about benefits.

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The Micro Dynamics of Support Seeking

The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science ◽

10.1177/0002716213475775 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 647 (1) ◽

pp. 83-101 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Celeste Watkins-Hayes

Keyword(s):

Social Support ◽

Middle Class ◽

Low Income ◽

Service Providers ◽

Hiv Positive ◽

People Living With Hiv ◽

Women Living With Hiv ◽

Hiv Positive Women ◽

Living With Hiv ◽

Hiv Aids

Previous literature suggests that AIDS Service Organizations (ASOs) play an important support role in the lives of impoverished women living with HIV. Less is known about the dynamics of institutional support for middle-class women living with HIV/AIDS, who are assumed to possess a broader base of resources to address their diagnosis. Using qualitative data collected from a racially and economically diverse group of HIV-positive women in Chicago, this article compares how low-income and middle-class women utilize ASOs and reveals how the women’s divergent approaches to availing themselves of institutional resources have important implications for their social and economic coping. For example, associating with ASOs can be status-improving for impoverished women and status-diminishing for middle-class women. As a result, middle-class women report a less robust network of social service providers and people living with HIV/AIDS on whom they rely for HIV-related information and social support, making them vulnerable to HIV-specific social isolation. In sum, the ways that HIV-positive women deploy institutional ties to negotiate their HIV/AIDS status differs markedly depending on socioeconomic status, suggesting that the role of class in gathering social support may be more complex than previously understood.

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