Assessment of Adherence and Self-Efficacy of People with VIH/ AIDS

Adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) for VIH/AIDS is essential to maintain the health status of the person living with VIH/AIDS. How people experience, think, motivate, and behave can be determined by beliefs of effectiveness. Such beliefs produce diverse effects through four main processes: cognitive, motivational, affective, and selective. In this study, the possible relationship between adherence and self-efficacy was assessed, the role of the patient as a decisive factor in maintaining adherence for antiretroviral treatment. CEAT-VIH (measuring compliance) and the Self-Efficacy Expectation Scale were used to follow the Antiretroviral Prescription. There were 53 VIH/AIDS patients, men and women, whose regression analysis revealed a relationship between the capacity for self-efficacy and the level of adherence and significance. The analysis showed that the role of the patient during his treatment is important for the success of the treatment and maintenance of adherence based on self-efficacy

Exposure to COVID-19 is Not the Only Threat to Mental Health

Due to the innovation and jeopardy of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, it has been observed that the population is not treating their pre-existing health conditions as usual. It has also been observed that people, for the fear of being infected with COVID-19 and due to confinement, do not continue with their treatments of health conditions diagnosed prior to the pandemic, and it will be possible an increase, in the not too distant future, of other health conditions. Also, the health of the population, both physical and mental, can be compromised. The objective of this article is to present some of the conditions that have been observed during other epidemic episodes and some risk factors that population are currently exposed to due to COVID-19. As health professionals we have to create awareness about the importance of provide immediate attention to these mental health conditions because it could become a detrimental public health problem also, this issue can possibly be greater than the one we have today with the pandemic.