Need to raise awareness about self care practices among people living with human immunodeficiency virus infection

BACKGROUND: Globally, 36.9 million people are living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Like in chronic disease, many individuals may engage in self-initiated behaviors in HIV that are useful to maintain health, quality of life and perceptions of wellbeing. All these behaviors form the part of self-care activities. METHODOLOGY: This is a hospital-based cross-sectional descriptive study carried out in a large tertiary care center. A total of 120 consecutive HIV-positive patients were included in the study. RESULTS: While 99% (101) of participants told that good diet is necessary to maintain health, only 42.2% (43) told that adherence to treatment is important. With respect to satisfactory knowledge regarding different attributes of self care, majority (79.4%) had knowledge regarding diet to be taken to stay healthy while only 37.3% had knowledge regarding precautions to be taken while preparing food, 28.4% in case suffering from diarrhea, skin problems (11.8%), fever (61.8%), cough (19.6%), vomiting (11.8%), and headache (45.6%) which were very low. With regard to overall knowledge status, 22.5% (95% confidence interval 14.9–31.89) had satisfactory score while 77.5% had unsatisfactory score. The test of significance revealed that there is statistically significant relation of knowledge regarding self-care with that of education and duration of HIV positivity. CONCLUSION: Findings showed low awareness regarding self-care to be taken, leading to low percentage of overall satisfactory knowledge level among respondents which is a matter of concern. This knowledge which is often neglected and is therefore vital for an HIV-positive person to be able to take care of himself at the right time and take the right actions to prevent the progression of the disease and improve the quality of life.