Comparison of Stress Level, Habitual Physical Activity Level and Immune Profile of People Living With HIV

Abstract

The objective of this study was to compare the level of stress, the habitual level of Physical Activity and the immunological profile of people living with HIV. The present study had as sample 307 individuals of both sexes, X̅ = 46.8 ± 9.2 years, with positive HIV serology. Socioeconomic information was collected using an instrument, CD4+ lymphocyte count and HIV viral load were collected from the patients' medical records. Stress level was assessed using Lipp's Stress Symptom Inventory (ISSL), and Baecke's questionnaire was used to classify physical activity level. The Man-Whitney test was used to compare the variables and the Spearman test to verify the relationship between the variables adopting p < 0.05 as the significance level. As a result, the study showed that 26.9% of the individuals are in the stress exhaustion phase, in relation to the level of physical activity, 28.2% were identified as "active", 23.1% as "very active", 23.1% as "insufficiently active", and 24.1% as "sedentary". The presence of stress was prevalent in sedentary individuals (13.6%) with longer duration of infection (27.3%) and with lymphocyte counts above 500mm (43.3%). The CD4+ count showed a significant result when compared to the level of stress, (U=1848.50; p=0.02). A relationship between depression/anxiety and stress was identified (r = 0.407; p > 0.001). We conclude that the presence of stress has an effect on TCD4+ count and that the higher the depression/anxiety symptoms the higher the stress level in PLHIV. Keywords: Viral Load, CD4 Lymphocyte Count, Psychological Stress, HIV