NCT03762187

A Brief Affirmation Intervention on HIV-related Distress and Positive Living in Lesotho

Effects of a Brief Affirmation Intervention on HIV-related Distress and Positive Living Intentions Among Individuals Recently Diagnosed With HIV in Lesotho

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 389 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of California, Santa Barbara · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

This study is interested in the stress associated with being HIV positive and looking at ways to reduce that stress. Individuals who are HIV positive face a number of nontrivial threats and stressors: the burden of illness, loss of work, stigmatization, and the chance of death. The study investigates the use of self-affirmation to reduce some of these threats and stressors. Self-affirmation may helping people to cope with these threats and stressors by reminding individuals of other valued aspects of themselves, thus reducing the impact, both psychologically and physiologically, of these threats. Experimentally induced affirmations in which individuals are asked to write about values that are important to the self have been shown to reduce physiological stress among healthy student populations (Sherman, Bunyan, Creswell, \& Jaremka, 2009). This research will be conducted in collaboration with the global health organizations, PSI who is already providing counseling to those living with HIV on how to reduce the spread of HIV and how to live a healthy life with HIV. These counseling sessions take place at local clinics and hospitals while individuals are waiting to be seen for treatment and are completely voluntary.

Conditions

• Self-affirmation Plus Positive Living Counseling
• Counseling

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Self-affirmation	Individuals select important values and then write about why that value is important to them.
BEHAVIORAL	Positive living counseling	Each of the clinics from which participants were recruited conducts positive living counseling as part of their treatment programs. This counseling is conducted by counselors who are trained and monitored by the Lesotho Network of AIDS Support Organizations (LENASO) and consistent with the positive prevention framework (see Bunnell et al., 2005 for description). Each counseling session focused on addressing positive living goals such as the importance of taking one's medications on time and every day, using protection with every partner, and the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Timeline

• Start date: 2014-09-01
• Primary completion: 2015-01-31
• Completion: 2015-01-31
• First posted: 2018-12-03
• Last updated: 2023-12-07