Homelessness, unemployment, and divorce among human immunodeficiency virus infected subjects in Tabriz, North West of Iran, 2012

Abstract

Introduction: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) attains high importance, because of its high fatality, disability, political, and socio-economic impacts. Individuals living with HIV infection are poorly affected in terms of their psychological and socioeconomic aspect of quality-of-life. The aim of this study was to identify residence, marital, and employment characteristics of HIV infected subjects and to compare these characteristics prior of getting infection. Methods: This study was cross-sectional, conducted on 64 HIV infected subjects referring the Counseling Center of Behavioral Disease in Tabriz, Iran, 2012. Required data were collected using self-administered questionnaire, which was validated by experts and reliability was ensured through respondent validity method. Finally, data were analyzed with the help of SPSS for Windows. Results: The result showed that 89.0% of patients were male. Mean age of participants was 37.00 ± 8.84 years. Homelessness rate was 0.0% before acquiring infection when compared to 7.8% afterwards. The rate of unemployed was 3.8% that raised up to 62.5% after infection. Finally, it could be said that, after infection, divorced subjects increased from 0 to 27.6%, respectively. Conclusion: The findings showed that, homelessness, unemployment, and divorce have increased dramatically among HIV infected subjects.

Keywords

• Human Immunodeficiency Virus
• Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
• Tabriz (Iran)