Self-care strategies and information sources for HIV/AIDS symptom management

Self-Care Strategies and Sources of Information About HIV / AIDS Symptoms

Management Article Review:

Chou FY, Holzemer WL, Portillo CJ, Slaughter R. (2004) Self-care strategies and sources of information for HIV / AIDS symptom management. Nursing Research. Sept./Oct. 2004. 53(5), 332-339. Retrieved from Medscape 26 Jan 2005 at http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/494017

Patients with HIV and even patients suffering the full complications of full-blown AIDS no longer labor under a certain death sentence, thanks to the evolution of more effective retroviral medications that make the symptoms of HIV a chronic rather than a terminal condition. This has also enabled the increasingly overburdened medical system of the United States to deploy outpatient, rather than inpatient care to these patients. But these patients still exhibit symptoms from their ailments and side effects from the medications. The most common physical complaints are diarrhea, nausea. The most common psychological ailments are anxiety, fear, neuropathy, depression, and fatigue. But as outpatient-nursing care is by definition not 24/7, often patients must deploy self-care strategies to physically and psychologically cope with their ailments.

To better aid nurse practitioners in giving guidance to AIDS and HIV patients in self-care strategies, researchers analyzed the questionnaire responses from 359 HIV-positive patients on their symptom experience and management, and sources of information on self-care. Of the respondents, 74% were taking antiretroviral medications. Although the sampling for the study was not large, it did have a suffciently similar composition to the typical patient a nurse practitioner might service in an outpatient setting. The average age of the respondents was 43 years, 78% were male.