Quality of Life among HIV Infected Couples

By : Archana Shukla, Disha Arora

Page No: 41-57

Abstract
Present study explored various aspects of quality of life (QOL) among HIV infected couples. Data were collected by administering WHOQOL-HIV 120, in face to face personal interview, to a small sample of 120 married couples who fell under one of the four couple types based upon their HIV statuses: the first two types are of discordant couples wherein either the husband is HIV+ and the wife is HIV- (Type I, N= 28) or wife is HIV+ while the husband is HIV- (Type II, N= 12); the other two types of couple are either with positive concordance with both husband and wife being HIV+ (Type III, N= 40) or with negative concordance wherein both husbands and wives are HIV negative (Type IV, N= 40). Type IV couples were selected by matching them to those under Type III with respect to age and income. Data were collected through structured questionnaires in personal face to face interview. After scoring each questionnaire, couple scores were created by adding and averaging the scores of husband and wife. The units of analysis for this study were thus couples. 4 X 2 ANOVAs were used to explore the main as well as the interaction effects of two demographic variables- couple type and age on quality of life dimensions. Results indicate that more than age, discordance/concordance of couple’s HIV status has greater impact on quality of life dimensions.

Author :
Archana Shukla : Dean Faculty of ARTS & Director, AIBAS — Amity University Haryana, Manesar – 122413.