Effects of Daily Discrimination on Pain, Mood, and Sleep in People Living with HIV

Abstract

Emerging literature suggests that experiences of discrimination negatively influence health and well-being. It is unfortunately common for people living with HIV (PLWH) to be stigmatized and discriminated against because of their HIV status and other marginalized identities (e.g., ethnicity/race, sexual identity and orientation). To date, little research has specifically examined discrimination in PWLH and its associations with pain and other pain-relevant factors such as mood and sleep. The purpose of this ongoing study was to preliminarily analyze associations among daily experiences of discrimination, pain severity and interference, depressive symptoms, and sleep in PLWH. Participants included 24 PLWH recruited from a local HIV treatment center. Participants completed The Everyday Discrimination Scale (TEDS) followed by the Brief Pain Inventory – Short Form (BPI-SF), the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies – Depression Scale (CES-D). Initial findings tentatively suggest that more frequent daily experiences of discrimination may be significantly associated with greater pain interference on the BPI-SF (p = .030) and greater severity of insomnia symptoms on the ISI (p = .059). However, it appears that daily experiences of discrimination may not be meaningfully associated with pain severity on the BPI-SF (p = .401) or depressive symptoms on the CES-D (p = .235). Our findings highlight the potentially deleterious effects of daily discrimination experiences on pain and sleep in in PLWH. As this ongoing study recruits a larger sample of PLWH, data will need to be reanalyzed to better determine the durability of these preliminary findings. However, there is potential that findings from this study may assist in elucidating causal pathways linking discrimination to pain and pain relevant health behaviors like sleep in PLWH. Grant support from The Impact of Insomnia on Pain, Physical Function, and Inflammation in HIV (3R01HL147603-03S1).