Self-care burden among HIV-infected persons with metabolic syndrome

Abstract

Medication treatment by Antiretroviral drug (ARV) in HIV-infected patients for reducing mortality from opportunistic infection provoked side effects that patients provided with the medication treatment, especially HIV-infected patients who were treated with protease inhibitor (PIs) and stavudine (d4T), were likely to be exposed to metabolic syndrome, namely hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and diabetes. As a result, self-care requisites among HIV-infected persons with metabolic syndrome were predominant when compared with other HIV-infected persons, and disabled them from fulfilling such requisites, as well as led to self-care burden. This   study was a descriptive research with the aim of exploring the self-care burden among HIV-infected persons with aspects of metabolic syndrome. The sample were 104 HIV-infected persons who visited Ramathibodi Hospital the outpatient clinic (being selected by purposive sampling), and answered the questionnaires which were modified and designed based on Oberst’s concept of self-care burden (Oberst, 1991). They were been collected from August to November 2013. The findings of the study revealed that most of the samples were exposed to hyperlipidemia, followed by hypertension, while diabetes was also detected along with other metabolic syndrome. The majority of the sample had been infected with the virus for an average of 10.5 years, and 84.6% had over 300 CD4 cells per cubic millimeter inside their body. With regard to the demographic   data, most of the samples were male and their marital status was single. The cause of infection was mostly derived from sexual intercourse (86.5%). The present study reported that 74% of HIV-infected persons with metabolic syndrome had a moderate level of self-care burden.