Knowledge of HIV Status Is Associated With a Decrease in the Severity of Depressive Symptoms Among Female Sex Workers in Uganda and Zambia.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Knowledge of HIV-positive status may result in depressive symptoms, which may be a concern to scaling novel HIV testing interventions that move testing outside the health system and away from counselor support.

Setting

Uganda and Zambia.

Methods

We used longitudinal data from 2 female sex worker (FSW) cohorts in Uganda (n = 960) and Zambia (n = 965). Over 4 months, participants had ample opportunity to HIV testing using standard-of-care services or self-tests. At baseline and 4 months, we measured participants' perceived knowledge of HIV status, severity of depressive symptoms (continuous PHQ-9 scale, 0-27 points), and prevalence of likely depression (PHQ-9 scores ≥10). We estimated associations using individual fixed-effects estimation.

Results

Comp

SUBMITTER: Ortblad KF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6898780 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature