Abstract

MELO, Elizabete et al. Physical and psychological symptoms of stress in people living with the human immunodeficiency virus. Revista Portuguesa de Enfermagem de Saúde Mental [online]. 2019, n.22, pp.19-26. ISSN 1647-2160.  https://doi.org/10.19131/rpesm.0259.

BACKGROUND: Living with HIV, besides being a disease without cure and with a high stigmatizing burden, is considered a social phenomenon that coexists with physical suffering representing a high source of stress. AIM: To evaluate the prevalence, associated factors, and physical and psychological symptoms of stress in people living with HIV by comparing stress by sex. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional analytical study conducted with people living with HIV in outpatient care in southeastern Brazil. A questionnaire was used for sociodemographic and clinical characterization; and for the evaluation of stress symptoms, the Lipp Stress Symptom Inventory (ISSL) was used, which identifies the presence of stress, the predominant symptomatology and the phase of the patient. The chi-square association test was applied for analysis, adopting p <0.05. RESULTS: 340 people participated in the study, of which 47.6% were diagnosed with stress. Stress was associated with age (p=0.018), time of diagnosis (p = 0.025) and time of treatment (p=0.016). Women presented a higher frequency of stress symptoms in the alert (60.8%), near-exhaustion (75.0%) and exhaustion (54.8%) phases, with a predominance of physical symptoms, highlighting the impossibility of working (p= 0.03), the desire to escape from everything (p=0.004) and think/talk about the same subject (p=0.02). CONCLUSIONS: The present study showed a high prevalence of stress, with an association between age, time since diagnosis and duration of antiretroviral treatment; and predominance between signs and symptoms of stress in women.

Keywords : Stress, psychological; Mental health; HIV Infections.

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