Abstract

Mohanarani Suhadev , Udaya Mahadevan, Beena E Thomas1 & Soumya Swaminathan

Social support is an important buffer for the spouses of HIV infected men. This paper aims to find out the support systems from three different sources namely relational, friends and professional for the women who are the family caregivers. The study included 201 women who accompanied their spouses and children to 3 hospitals at Chennai and Vellore, Tamilnadu, India, during January to June 2007. Social Support was measured by a 9 item scale used in the RAND Medical Outcome Study (Sherbourne & Stewart, 1991). Majority of the respondents were sero-positive (69%) and marriage was the only risk factor for them. Of 201 women, 122 (61%) reported that they disclosed their diagnosis of HIV to others and the scale measured different kinds of support namely companionship, intimacy and understanding and physical assistance. One fifth of the respondents did not get any support from others. About 59% of the respondents had someone to show love and affection and 46% had some persons to listen to them most or all of the time. But, they lacked persons to give them good advice and guide properly (41%). Most women caregivers of HIV infected men received social support mostly from their natal families and urban women enjoyed better social support.