Published Paper Details:

Background India is home to 2.1 million HIV patients. Stigma and depressive morbidity related to HIV infection has serious individual and public health ramifications. With this background in mind the present study aimed at assessing the level of depression and stigma in People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA). Materials and methods A cross sectional study was conducted over a period of four weeks among 148 PLHA, who consented to be part of the study and were selected by Stratified random sampling. Perceived stigma and depression was assessed among study subjects using the standardized Berger stigma scale and BDI II. Pearson correlation and Chi square test were used to assess the relation between depression and stigma and the association of study variables with demographic variables. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 23 software. Results The majority of the study population had moderate to severe levels of depression and experienced severe levels of stigma in all the domains (>90%). The mean scores, 64.99 + 6.8 revealed that public attitude was most predominant type of stigma. A positive correlation existed between depression and all stigma domains. Depression was associated with socioeconomic status, whereas stigma was found to be associated with age, marital status, socioeconomic status and presence of children. Discussion Most of the PLHA attending the ART centers had severe levels of depression and stigma. Depression was also found to be positively correlated with stigma. Thus high prevalence of depression and stigma underscores the need for screening of PLHA for the same, to achieve better health outcome.