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Psychosocial Factors Associated with Food Insufficiency Among People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) Initiating ART in Ethiopia

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Abstract

Food insufficiency is associated with suboptimal HIV treatment outcomes. Less is known about psychosocial correlates of food insufficiency among PLWH. This sample includes 1176 adults initiating antiretroviral therapy at HIV clinics in Ethiopia. Logistic regression modeled the association of psychological distress, social support, and HIV-related stigma with food insufficiency. Among respondents, 21.4% reported frequent food insufficiency. Psychological distress [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 2.61 (95% CI 1.79, 3.82)], low social support [aOR 2.20 (95% CI 1.57, 3.09)] and enacted stigma [aOR 1.69 (95% CI 1.26, 2.25)] were independently associated with food insufficiency. Food insufficiency interventions should address its accompanying psychosocial context.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the study participants and clinic and research staff who collected the data.

Funding

The project was supported by a research grant from the US National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH089831). Dr. Parcesepe was also supported by Award Number T32 MH019139 (Principal Investigator, Theodorus Sandfort, PhD) from the National Institute of Mental Health. All the clinics included in this study received support from ICAP at Columbia University through funding from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health, City University of New York, 55 West 125th Street, New York, NY, 10027, USA

    Madeline A. DiLorenzo, Olga Tymejczyk, Sarah Gorrell Kulkarni & Denis Nash

  2. Department of Maternal and Child Health, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Angela Parcesepe

  3. Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Olga Tymejczyk & Denis Nash

  4. HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA

    Susie Hoffman & Robert H. Remien

  5. Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Susie Hoffman & Batya Elul

  6. Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA

    Sheri D. Weiser

  7. International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Program (ICAP), Columbia University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Tsigereda Gadisa & Zenebe Melaku

Authors
  1. Madeline A. DiLorenzo
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  2. Angela Parcesepe
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  3. Olga Tymejczyk
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  4. Susie Hoffman
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  5. Batya Elul
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  6. Sheri D. Weiser
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  7. Robert H. Remien
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  8. Sarah Gorrell Kulkarni
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  9. Tsigereda Gadisa
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  10. Zenebe Melaku
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  11. Denis Nash
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Madeline A. DiLorenzo.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

The study was approved by the Institutional Review Boards of the Oromia Regional Health Bureau, Columbia University Medical Center and the City University of New York. All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Institutional Review Boards of these institutions and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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DiLorenzo, M.A., Parcesepe, A., Tymejczyk, O. et al. Psychosocial Factors Associated with Food Insufficiency Among People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) Initiating ART in Ethiopia. AIDS Behav 23, 3052–3057 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-019-02505-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-019-02505-9

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