Nutritional status and health characteristics of people living with hiv/aids

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Diagnosis and treatment of HIV infection may impact on the individual’s life, including the physical aspect such as the length of HIV diagnosed, WHO stage, the antiretroviral therapy (ART), and the psychological aspect such as the level of stress. People living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) have an increased need of energy but they have symptom of lack of nutrition intake. Therefore, PLWHA have a risk of low nutrition status. AIM: The aims of this study were to examine the relationship between nutritional status and health characteristics among HIV/AIDS patients. METHODS: A cross-sectional analytical design was conducted among PLWHA in outpatients’ hospital. A purposive sampling method was used and the sample size was 78 respondents. Data relating to socio-demographic and health characteristics, and nutritional status were collected using questionnaires. The cross-tabulation calculations used Chi-square were presented to identify the relationship between nutritional status and health characteristics. RESULTS: The majority of respondent had the good health characteristic which includes the length of HIV diagnosed more than 6 months (79.5%), clinical WHO Stage I (61.5%), no stress level (94.9%), and first choice of ART (83.3%). The nutritional status reported that majority of the respondents had normal body mass index (61.5%), mid-upper arms circumstances not at risk (>23.5 cm) (71.8%), and moderate level of energy intake (37.2%). There was no significant associated between the nutritional status and health characteristics (p> 0.05). CONCLUSION: The good condition of health characteristic among PLWHA in this study impacted on level the nutritional status.