Ways of Coping among People Living with Hiv: a Study from Hiv Community Care Centre in Tamil Nadu

Although medical advances over the past decade have ensured better treatment for people living with HIV, significant challenges remain in coping with the disease. The ability to cope successfully against HIV diagnosis is influenced by a number of psychological factors. The purpose of this study is to assess the patterns of coping among the recently diagnosed HIV infected people in Tamil Nadu. Our sample examined 70 HIV infected people (69% women), attending a Community Care Centre in rural Tamil Nadu. Respondents were interviewed using Coping with HIV Scale tool that examined five theoretically-unique coping mechanisms. Analysis revealed the mean scores for different coping strategies - distraction 58.03 (SD 10.69); blame 43.59 (SD 14.22); positive growth 55.33 (SD 15.67); expression is 50.17 (SD 10.73); wishful thinking is 62.8 (SD 16.7). Age, literacy, marital status, income had an influence on usage of specific coping strategy. However, usage of such specific coping strategy was not statistically different between men and women, type of family or number of children. The results of this study allowed us to examine the five theoretically-unique coping mechanisms and an in-depth knowledge of such strategies would allow planning of appropriate psychological interventions to enhance adaptive coping among the recently diagnosed HIV- population.