Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #117797

Tania Basta, MPH¹, Michael Reece, PhD, MPH², and Enbal Shacham, MEd². (1) Department of Health Promotion and Behavior, The University of Georgia, 300 River Road, Athens, GA 30602, 706-583-0692, tbasta@uga.edu, (2) Department of Applied Health Science, Indiana University, HPER Building 116, 1025 E. Seventh Street, Bloomington, IN 47405-7109

Background: Minorities in the U.S. have increasingly been affected by HIV. While the psychological implications of HIV infection have been well documented among individuals living with HIV, little is known about cultural factors which might influence enrollment in mental health care. Objective: This study sought to better understand the psychological distress presented by minorities self-enrolling into HIV-related mental health care. Methods: Data from 1996 individuals living with HIV, collected over 10 years at an HIV-related mental health clinic, were analyzed to assess associations between ethnicity and psychological distress. Results: Ethnic minorities, when compared to Caucasian clients, reported significantly lower levels of psychological distress on measures of obsessive-compulsive behavior (t=-4.55, p<.05), depression (t=-6.36, p<.05), anxiety (t=-6.33, p<.05), and a global, composite measure of psychological distress (t=-3.43, p<.05) Furthermore, minorities reported significantly higher levels of paranoid ideation (t=3.28, p<.05) than their Caucasian counterparts. Further analyses revealed no significant differences between African-American and Latino clients on any of the psychological distress measures. Conclusions: These findings suggest that: a) minorities presented for care with less intense levels of psychological distress, b) minorities may have underreported psychological distress symptoms, or c) there may be issues with the validity of current measures used to assess psychological distress among minorities. As HIV service providers continue to develop services for minorities, it is necessary for the field to pursue an active research agenda in this area to better understand these issues and link research findings to the programs developed by community-based providers.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to identify psychological distress patterns of minorities living with HIV who self-enroll into mental health care.
• Participants will be able to describe associations between minority cultural factors and mental health.
• Participants will be able to describe strategies for assessing and responding to the unique mental health issues of minorities.

Keywords: Minorities, Mental Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.