Relationships of Illness Perceptions with Depression and Anxiety in People Who Live with HIV/AIDS in a High-prevalence Ethnic Autonomous Region of Sichuan, China

• Published in: AIDS and behavior Vol. 26; no. 11; pp. 3783 - 3793
• Main Authors: Feng, Chuanteng, Yu, Bin, Fu, Yao, Reinhardt, Jan D., Yang, Shujuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.11.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome; AIDS; Anxiety; Disease prevention; Health Psychology; HIV; Human immunodeficiency virus; Illnesses; Infectious Diseases; Intervention; Investigations; Low income groups; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental depression; Mental disorders; Mental health; Mental health services; Original Paper; Public Health; Symptoms; China; Sichuan China; HIV/AIDS; Depression; Anxiety; Quantile regression; Illness perceptions
• ISSN: 1090-7165; 1573-3254; 1573-3254
• DOI: 10.1007/s10461-022-03707-4

Poor mental health challenges outcomes and treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and may be related to illness perceptions. To investigate if depression and anxiety were associated with illness perceptions, we drew a random sample of 729 PLWHA from 13 administrative units in Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan, China. Among the PLWHA surveyed, 222 and 175 had probable anxiety or depression. In mixed-effects logistic regression, negative illness perceptions were associated with increased odds of anxiety/depression. In linear mixed-effects quantile regression, the relationship of more negative illness perceptions with more severe and frequent symptoms of anxiety/depression grew stronger in the upper quantiles of the GAD-7 and PHQ-9 distributions, well beyond scale cut-offs for probable clinical relevance. We hypothesize that negative illness perceptions of HIV/AIDS and severity of depression and anxiety symptoms may mutually reinforce each other. Illness perceptions are a promising intervention target for improving the mental health of PLWHA.