Assessment and Evaluation of Depression and Loneliness among People Living with HIV in Selected Places of Coastal Andhra Pradesh

Back Ground: The AIDS pandemic continues to be an escalating health problem throughout the world. Mental health of PLHIVs is one of the neglected aspects in the Continuum care and most often it is under diagnosed as well as under treated. This study was proposed to assess the prevalence of depression and loneliness among PLHIV so that adequate measures could be taken to address their needs, and if required treatment of mental illness could be prioritized, which would rather be a more holistic approach. Objectives: To review key mental health issues such as loneliness and depression in the continuum of care for people living with HIV (PLHIV) & to provide a framework for integrating mental health services into HIV/AIDS interventions. Method: 380 PLHIV from the districts of East Godavari & Vishakhapatnam were interviewed using the SRQ-10 depression scale and R-UCLA loneliness scale for assessing the depression and loneliness respectively the responses were graded according to the standard guidelines and the mean scores for each scale were obtained. Statistical analysis was done using the student t-test and Chi square for categorical variables number and percentages were calculated. Results: An overall 71.84% of subjects were depressed and 66.57% were found to be lonely. Loneliness & depression was significantly higher in female population. Depression as well as loneliness was found to be significantly associated with their educational status, financial status and the presence of opportunistic infections. Conclusion: The mental health indicators depression and loneliness need more stress in the continuum of care of PLHIV.