Spiritual Well-Being and Health-Related Quality of Life Among African–American Women with HIV/AIDS

Abstract

Many HIV-positive women regard spirituality as an important part of their lives and spirituality may have positive impact on their health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Particularly among African American women with HIV, spirituality may serve as a cultural and psychological resource. This descriptive, crosssectional study examined associations between spiritual well-being (SWB) and its components, existential well-being (EWB) and religious well-being (RWB), and dimensions of HRQOL among a non-random sample of 118 African American HIV-positive women. A secondary analysis of data from two similar, NIH-funded studies: The Get Busy Living (GBL) Project and the KHARMA Project, was conducted. Baseline data on women from both studies were combined into one database and statistical analyses, including descriptive, correlation and hierarchical regression analyses, were conducted. Existential well-being was significantly positively (β =.74; p=.014) associated with the physical composite of HRQOL and accounted for a significant amount of unique variance (10.0%) beyond that explained by socio-demographic variables, religious well-being (RWB), HIV medication adherence, CD4 cell count and percentage, HIV viral load, and depressive symptoms. EWB was also significantly positively (β =.57; p=.024) associated with the mental health composite of HRQOL. Depressive symptomatology was also significantly inversely (β =.40; p=.004) associated with mental HRQOL. EWB accounted for a significant amount of additional variance (6.3%) beyond that explained by other variables. Spirituality is an important factor in the lives and quality of life of African American women and women living with HIV/AIDS. Further research is needed to examine relationships between spirituality and HRQOL among HIV-positive African American women.