Social relations, psychological variables and adherence behaviors in adults with HIV

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was conducted with the aim to test if the perceived difficulty to deal with social relationships would affect the role of a set of psychological variables on the practice of the adherence behaviors to antiretroviral therapy in a group of 111 people with HIV. Participants responded at to two self-administered questionnaires: Psychological variables and adherence behaviors, and Stress-related situations. A multiple regression analysis showed that the effect of psychological variables depends on how difficulties to establish social relationships are valuated: If there are difficulties, the weight is shifted to the reasons underlying adherence behavior (F [1, 44]= 49.582, p <.001), if there are none, it moves to an interaction between motives and competences in the past (F [2, 62]= 22.280, p <.001). The results have profound implications for the design of intervention programs, in which the objectives should be targeted to facilitate and/or improve in adults with HIV: Social competence to interact efficiently with significant people in their immediate environment, the individual psychological adjustment, as well as the efficient practice of adherence behaviors. Copyright