Amsterdam 2015
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| Abstract #2317 - Women and Sex | ||||
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Session: 56.5: Women and Sex (Oral poster discussion) on Friday @ 12.30-13.30 in Poster room 2 Chaired by Brian Kelly, Wendee Wechsberg Authors: Presenting Author: Dr Maria Jose Fuster-RuizdeApodaca - SEISIDA, Spain |
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| Additional Authors: | ||||
| Aim: To evaluate the impact of an intervention developed by women living with HIV who participated in the BMS funded SHE program in Spain. The SHE program aims to improve women’s quality of life (QoL) and both healthcare professionals and women living with HIV participate in it. | ||||
| Method / Issue: In 2014 the SHE peer support program was carried out by four women living with HIV previously trained to give nine two-hour sessions. Three of these interventions were conducted in hospitals or NGOs and one in a penitentiary institution with the collaboration of the healthcare professionals involved in the SHE program. In these sessions, peer supporters covered and shared all the contents of a patient toolkit designed so that women with HIV can give support and education to their peers (SHE toolkit). The toolkit contains nine sections covering the following subjects: diagnosis, treatment, access and use of Healthcare Services, sex & relationships, human rights, physical health, sexual & reproductive issues and wellbeing for people living with HIV. A total of 34 HIV positive women participated in the program in 2014. In order to evaluate the intervention impact, a pre-experimental design was used measuring the dependent variables pre & post-test. We measured the psychosocial predictors of well-being and QoL of people with HIV or AIDS (Remor et al., 2012), the health related QoL (MOS-HIV, Badía et al., 1999) and the empowerment of the participants (adaptation of the C-DES-20 scale, Shiu et al., 2003). A comparison of related measures through the non-parametric Wilcoxon test was carried out and the size of the effect was calculated. | ||||
| Results / Comments: 29 pairs of valid pre & post questionnaires for the analysis were obtained. After the intervention, a significant higher score was reached in the protective facet of QoL related to Positive Reframing in addition to a significant decrease in the score of the risk factor related to the perceived Enacted Stigma. Additionally, marginal positive changes were found in the facets related to Self-esteem, Personal Meaning, Personal Values Change and Personal Autonomy. Moreover, marginal positive changes were observed both in the Transient Health dimension of the MOS-HIV and in the Empowerment Scale. | ||||
| Discussion: Once the intervention finished, women with HIV participating in the program evaluated more positively their life, had a higher self-esteem, increased their positive personal values, perceived a greater meaning and purpose in their lives and perceived greater personal autonomy. Also, they perceived less stigma and they felt more empowered to overcome barriers. Furthermore, they perceived a better physical and emotional health. The peer support SHE program is useful to empower women with HIV and to improve their well-being and QoL. | ||||
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