Perspectives and Needs of Social Support for People With HIV: A Qualitative Study According to Three Aspects of Stakeholders

TL;DR

This study explores the multidimensional social support needs of people with HIV from the perspectives of patients, peer volunteers, and healthcare professionals.

Contribution

The study identifies five distinct dimensions of social support needs for people with HIV through inductive thematic analysis.

Findings

People with HIV require social support across five dimensions: informational, instrumental, emotional, affiliational, and appraisal.

Personalized support plans are essential to address the individual characteristics of people with HIV in clinical practice.

Abstract

To explore the perspectives and needs of people with HIV in terms of social support from the three perspectives of healthcare professionals, peer volunteers, and people with HIV.

Progress in ART has pushed HIV treatment to improve the quality of life of infected people, and UNAIDS has promoted the “95” goal, emphasizing good quality of health. Social support is critical to HIV health management and is strongly associated with multiple health outcomes. The current research on social support in HIV field is mostly based on traditional classification and requires deeper exploration of multidimensional influences.

During the period from January to March 2024, face-to-face, semistructured, in-depth interviews were conducted at Beijing You'an Hospital. The data were analyzed using an inductive thematic analysis.

A total of six people with HIV, three peer volunteers, and seven medical professionals were interviewed. Inductive analysis of the purposive samples revealed that the social support needs of people with HIV encompass five dimensions: informational support, instrumental support, emotional support, affiliational social support, and appraisal social support.

The social support required by people with HIV is multidimensional in nature. In clinical practice, it is essential to pay full attention to the individual characteristics of people with HIV and develop personalized support plans to ensure that people with HIV receive comprehensive social support.

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