AUTHOR=Qian Zhe , Li Bing , Liao Leyi , Liao Guichan , Chen Hongjie , Han Juanqing , Yu Tao , Xu Xuwen , Peng Jie , Cai Shaohang TITLE=Loneliness as a mediation from social support leading to a decrease of health-related quality of life among PLWHIV JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health VOLUME=10 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1067870 DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2022.1067870 ISSN=2296-2565 ABSTRACT=

This study focused on the mental health of people living with HIV(PLWHIV) and explored their relationship between loneliness and perceived social support, health related quality of life (HRQoL) with a method of structural equation model. We collected clinical and psychological data from consecutively enrolled PLWHIV. A total of 201 PLWHIVs were enrolled and measured with self-reporting survey instruments of UCLA Loneliness Scale, Self-Rating Depression Scale, Self-Rating Anxiety Scale, Social Support Ratio Scale and Short Form Health Survey-36. The levels of loneliness, depression, anxiety, perceived social support and HRQoL were assessed. PLWHIV enrolled were divided into two groups of loneliness and non-loneliness based on their UCLA Loneliness Scale scores. Multivariable analysis indicated that being married is a protective factor associated with loneliness (OR = 0.226; P = 0.032). We further found the loneliness group had a higher level of depression (P < 0.001) and anxiety (P < 0.001), but lower level of HRQoL (P < 0.001) than the non-loneliness group. We found there was a positive linear correlation between social support and HRQoL among the enrolled PLWHIVs (r2 = 0.0592; P = 0.0005). A structural equation model (SEM) was established to evaluate whether the loneliness played as a mediation role between social support and HRQoL. The model showed loneliness as a mediation from social support leading to a decrease of HRQoL. Our findings showed a potential psychological pathway from social support to HRQoL, suggesting the need for interventions focusing on social support may improve poor HRQoL lead by loneliness.