Family Social Support Rate of HIV positive Individuals in Khorram Abad

Background: AIDS is a serious problem which affects all aspects of an individual’s life. Affected persons have a fear of being excommunicated or being abandoned by their family or friends, so they hide their infectious status. This factor causes the infection to spread more easily. Family has a major supportive role for individuals suffering from AIDS and the family support results in promotion of their life quality. Therefore, decreases the spread of the infection. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on all persons infected with HIV in Khorram Abad (147 cases). Infection status of these patients have been approved before May, 2004 and their families aware of their disease. Data gathering tool was a two-part questionnaire including 36 questions, of which 16 questions concerned demographic information and the second part had 20 questions about the rate of family social support, based on standard questionnaire of PSS-F. All questionnaires were filled out at patients’ house. Findings: A majority of subjects (56.5%) benefited weak family social support. In addition, family social support from married persons was higher than single ones significantly (P=0.01). Rate of condom use in matrimony relations among married patients with more family social support was more frequent. This difference was also significant (P=0.04). Patients with higher social support were more aware of the risk of transferring the infection (P=0.05) and felt more responsibility to prevent the transfer of infection and notify their problem to others (P=0.000). Conclusion: Patients who receive more family social support, are more willing to say about their problem to other peoples, and use condom more frequently than other patients in their sexual activities. Since the majority of the studied patients received weak social support, it is recommended to improve and promote their social support by informing and educating their families.