A COMPARISON OF THE PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOSOCIAL WELLBEING OF CHILDREN LIVING WITH HIV CLHIV IN FAMILY BASED AND INSTITUTIONALIZED CARE SETTINGS IN KARNATAKA

Abstract

A good nurturing environment is crucial for physical and psychosocial development of the child. By and large children living with HIV are brought up in either home environment where they are looked after by both parents/one parent/grandparents/other caretakers. A small proportion of the children are brought to a structured institution either because they were orphaned or due to inability on the part of the caretakers to care for them. Previous research appears to suggest that institutional care jeopardizes children s optimal development. Having gone through the various literatures felt the need to compare the physical and psychosocial wellbeing of CLHIV in family based and institutionalized care settings which is an area unexplained in the Indian scenario. No training module addressing the needs of CLHIV currently exists in India thus there was a felt need for this study. The primary objective of the study was to compare the Physical and Psychosocial well- being of CLHIV in family-based and institutionalized care settings. Findings of the study revealed that, In both settings CD4 count, clinical staging and duration of ART years were comparable. The mean year of stay in institution was 2.4 years. Majority of children in both were in the category of normal according to their BAZ. 122 of the family based children were in the classification of stunting in comparison with 84 in the institutionalized children, which showed statistical significance between the group. According to child self report HRQOL, the difference of perceived physical health status between the two study groups was statistically significant with children living in institutionalized setting demonstrating better QOL in this domain. The results are encouraging as observed by comparatively good physical and psychosocial function of children living with HIV. However children living in the families either cared by parents or extended family members demonstrated lower QOL in comparison with the counterparts newline