291905
Concordance of mental health ratings between people living with HIV/AIDS and their primary informal caregivers
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Mary Mitchell, PhD,
Dept of Health, Behavior, and Society, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Amy Knowlton, MPH, ScD,
Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Allysha C. Robinson, MPH,
Bloomberg School of Public Health, Dept. of Health, Behavior, Society, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Trang Q. Nguyen, MS,
Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Objective: Low-income African-American, inner-city residents provide disproportionately high levels of informal (unpaid) HIV care (instrumental and emotional support) to family and friends living with HIV/AIDS. We examined evidence of the role of caregivers in care recipients' mental health and associations with their perceived associative stigma related to HIV caregiving. Methods: This study used a structural equation model to examine main effects of caregiver reports of recipients' mental health status and caregivers' self-reported associative stigma on care recipients' self-reported psychological distress (CES-D). Results: Results indicated that recipients' self-reported psychological distress was positively associated with caregiver reports of recipients' poor mental health (Beta=.24, p<.001) and with caregivers' associative stigma (Beta=.18, p<.05). In addition, stigma moderated the relationship between caregiver reports of recipients' mental health and recipient reports of their mental health (Beta=.43, p<.05), such that caregivers with higher perceived stigma and worse reports of recipients' mental health predicted recipient self reported poorer mental health. Conclusions: High agreement between caregivers' reports of recipients' mental health status and recipients' self reports of psychological distress suggest that caregivers were overall perceptive in assessing the mental health of their care recipients, and that caregivers who perceived high levels of associative stigma appeared to be most accurate in rating recipient's mental health status. These results suggest that, overall, the caregivers were aware of the mental health status of their care recipients and may provide a target population on which to focus interventions to monitor the mental health of PLHAs.
Learning Areas:
Biostatistics, economics
Public health or related research
Learning Objectives:
Describe the correlation of caregivers’ reports of their care recipients’ mental health and recipients’ reports of their mental health.
Describe the moderating effect that caregivers’ associative stigma has on the relationship between caregivers’ reports of care recipients’ mental health and care recipients’ reports of their mental health.
Keyword(s): Adult and Child Mental Health, Caregivers
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have completed the analyses being presented.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines,
and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed
in my presentation.
