Mental Health Problems Of Children Infected/Affected With/by HIV/AIDS In One Village Of Henan Province

Purpose : To assess the mental health status of children infected/affected with/by HIV/AIDS, and to examine the life events of these children. This study would provide the scientific basis on improving mental health status of these children.Method: A HIV/AIDS prevalent village was selected as the study field. Comparison of all of children who were infected with the human immunodeficiency virus or affected by Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome in this village, and sex and grade (or age) matched children with no experience of human immunodeficiency virus infection within themselves or their families random selected from the same village.This study used Life Events Questionnaire to examine the life events and used 4 scales to evaluate the mental health status of both subject and control children. Parents completed the 48-item Conners' Parent Rating Scales (CPRS-48), children who were at Grade four or above, and who were aged at 10 or above and had absent from school completed Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED), Depression Self-rating Scale (DSRS) and the scale attached to Indicator of Psychological Health from UNAIDS Guide to Monitoring and Evaluation of the National Response for Children Orphaned and Made Vulnerable By HIV/AIDS.Results: There were 113 children infected/affected with/by HIV/AIDS 6-17 years old in this HIV/AIDS prevalent village, 86 children were investigated as subject children in this study, and 86 control children were randomly selected from 350 other children in the same village.Subject children did not experience significant more life events or stress than control. But after removing HIV-related life events, subject children experience more family life event and academic life events and stress (P<0.05).Compared with control children, subject children had higher score of conduct problem and anxiety subscales of CPRS-48 (P<0.05), the result of SCARED and DSRS revealed that subject children had more generalized anxiety (P=0.061) and more depression (P<0.05), and higher co-incidence of generalized anxiety and depression (P<0.05). The scale attached to Indicator of Psychological Health indicated that subject had higher score of mood subscale (P<0.05).Controlling for background characteristics, subject children had more behavior problem and depression, but not more anxiety or other mental health problems.Multiple logistic regression analyses showed that mental health problems of subject children were associated with gender, whether is only child or not, and stressful life events.Conclusion: Children infected/affected with/by HIV/AIDS have more mental health problems than other children living in the same village, and it is associated with the impact of HIV/AIDS, so study on psychological intervention are required.