Care engagement with healthcare providers and symptom management self-efficacy in women living with HIV in China: secondary analysis of an intervention study

Abstract

Background: Symptom management self-efficacy is a prerequisite for individuals to fully manage their symptoms. The literature reports associations between engagement with healthcare providers (HCPs), internalized stigma, and types of self-efficacy other than symptom management. However, the factors of symptom management self-efficacy are not well understood. This study aimed to investigate the relationship among engagement with HCPs, internalized stigma, and HIV symptom management self-efficacy in Chinese women living with HIV (WLWH).

Methods: This current analysis was part of the original randomized control trial, we used data collected from 41 women living with HIV (WLWH) assigned to an intervention arm or a control arm from Shanghai and Beijing, China, at baseline, Week 4 and Week 12. The CONSORT checklist was used. The study was registered in the Clinical Trial Registry (#NCT03049332) on 10/02/2017.

Results: The results demonstrate that HCPs should increase engagement with WLWH when providing care, thereby improving their symptom management self-efficacy. The results suggested that participants' engagement with HCPs was significantly positively correlated with their HIV symptom management self-efficacy in the latter two time points. Internalized stigma was significantly negatively correlated with HIV symptom management self-efficacy only at the 4-week follow-up.

Conclusions: This study demonstrated the positive effect of engagement with HCPs on WLWHs' symptom management self-efficacy as well as the negative effect of internalized stigma on symptom management self-efficacy. Future research can further test the relationship between the three key concepts, as well as explore interventions to decrease internalized stigma.

Keywords: HIV; Healthcare providers; Self-efficacy; Stigma; Symptom management; Women.

Fig. 1

Consort Flow Chart