Self-help and life quality in persons with HIV disease.

This study examined factors contributing to life quality in persons with HIV disease. Selected concepts and statements in a model designed to explain self-help and life quality in persons with chronic conditions were tested. Eighty-three persons with a diagnosis of HIV disease (58% with AIDS) completed a demographic profile and four instruments to measure dependence for help with daily living, enabling skills, self-help and life quality. The instruments had been used by researchers testing the Self-Help Model on persons with other chronic diseases. Direction and magnitude of the relationships, revealed through causal modelling procedures, were consistent with previous tests of the model. Diagnosis of AIDS explained 29% of the variance in dependency, but had no explanatory value for enabling skill. Enabling skill (beta = 0.32) and dependency (beta = -0.49) explained 33% of the variance in self-help. Self-help (beta = 0.59) explained 34% of the variance in life quality. Results suggest that self-help is influenced negatively by dependency and positively by enabling skill. Enabling skill appears to mediate the negative effect of dependency on self-help and can be a target of interventions to improve quality of life in persons with HIV disease.