Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL 33136, USA.
AIDS Behav. 2010 Aug;14(4):799-806. doi: 10.1007/s10461-009-9604-4. Epub 2009 Aug 8.
Racial disparities in HIV/AIDS are well established and efforts to understand key factors that may explain these differences are needed. Recent evidence suggests that health literacy may contribute to disparities in health behaviors among African American HIV patients. One component of health literacy, numeracy, is emerging as an important skill for successful self management of medications. We therefore tested whether numeracy mediated the effects of race on medication management among HIV seropositive patients. Results showed that poor management of a simulated HIV medication regimen among African Americans and women was mediated by lower numeracy. Poor medication self-management may be a significant root cause for health disparities in African Americans with HIV/AIDS. Whether African American women may be at particular risk requires further study. Interventions to improve HIV medication self-management through addressing numeracy skills may help to narrow the gap in health disparities among African Americans with HIV/AIDS.
艾滋病病毒/艾滋病方面的种族差异是众所周知的，需要努力了解可能解释这些差异的关键因素。最近的证据表明，健康素养可能导致非裔美国艾滋病病毒感染者健康行为方面的差异。健康素养的一个组成部分，计算能力，正在成为成功自我管理药物的重要技能。因此，我们测试了计算能力是否在艾滋病毒阳性患者中调解了种族对药物管理的影响。结果表明，非裔美国人和女性对模拟艾滋病毒药物治疗方案的管理不善，是由较低的计算能力所导致的。药物自我管理不善可能是非裔美国人与艾滋病病毒/艾滋病患者健康差异的一个重要根源。非裔美国妇女是否特别容易受到影响需要进一步研究。通过解决计算能力问题来改善艾滋病毒药物自我管理的干预措施，可能有助于缩小非裔美国艾滋病病毒感染者/艾滋病患者健康差异方面的差距。
