A Brief Affirmation Intervention on HIV-related Distress and Positive Living in Lesotho

University of California, Santa Barbara

Status: Completed

Conditions: Counseling; Self-affirmation Plus Positive Living Counseling

Treatments: Behavioral: Positive living counseling; Behavioral: Self-affirmation

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03762187

13-0333

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study is interested in the stress associated with being HIV positive and looking at ways to reduce that stress. Individuals who are HIV positive face a number of nontrivial threats and stressors: the burden of illness, loss of work, stigmatization, and the chance of death. The study investigates the use of self-affirmation to reduce some of these threats and stressors. Self-affirmation may helping people to cope with these threats and stressors by reminding individuals of other valued aspects of themselves, thus reducing the impact, both psychologically and physiologically, of these threats. Experimentally induced affirmations in which individuals are asked to write about values that are important to the self have been shown to reduce physiological stress among healthy student populations (Sherman, Bunyan, Creswell, & Jaremka, 2009).

This research will be conducted in collaboration with the global health organizations, PSI who is already providing counseling to those living with HIV on how to reduce the spread of HIV and how to live a healthy life with HIV. These counseling sessions take place at local clinics and hospitals while individuals are waiting to be seen for treatment and are completely voluntary.

Enrollment: 389 patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• HIV+
• A CD4 count of less than or equal to 500 cells/mm3 or have significant symptomatology and HIV co-illness (WHO HIV clinical stage 3 or 4) to be eligible to start antiretroviral therapy

Exclusion criteria

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Factorial Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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389 participants in 2 patient groups

Self-affirmation

Experimental group

Description:

Participants completed a written self-affirmation manipulation before completing the standard counseling provided by the clinic.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Positive living counseling

Behavioral: Self-affirmation

Positive living counseling

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants completed the standard counseling provided by the clinic (treatment as usual control condition).

Treatment:

Behavioral: Positive living counseling