Physical and Psychosocial Problems Faced by Patients with Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Effect of Nurse Directed Rehabilitation Programme on Quality of Life in Kerala: A Pilot Study

The epidemic of HIV/AIDS enters into its fourth decade and is still considered as an important public health problem in developed and developing countries. HIV has become a long-term condition, which not only affect the physical health, but also lead to psychological and social problems. Nurse directed rehabilitation programme enables the patients to cope with these problems.

Assess the physical and psycho social problems. Evaluate the effect of nurse directed rehabilitation programme on quality of life.

A randomized control study was conducted among 40 subjects diagnosed with HIV and taking ART. Socio demographic and Clinical Performa, Physical problem assessment data sheet, Psycho social rating scale and WHOQOLHIV-BREF Scale were the instrument used for the study. Simple random sampling by lottery method was used to select sample.

Majority of the subjects were males and below 45 years. 70% of the subjects were married. 90% of subjects infected through heterosexual contact. 50% of subjects had CD4 count <500 cells/mm^3. 50% of subjects faced moderate health problems. Majority of them reported severe job related and family relationship problems. (80%) of subjects had financial problem and psychological distress. Quality of life was poor among (52.5%) of subjects and no one experienced good quality of life. Paired t test was used to evaluate the effect of NDRP. Significant improvement was noticed in QOL of subjects after nurse directed rehabilitation programme (p<0.001).

Results highlight the importance of intervention. Rehabilitation programme is effective to face problems and improve quality of life.