Adolescents living with HIV (ALWH) face various psychosocial and behavioral challenges due to the developmental stages of human maturation accompanied by the challenges of coping with HIV as a stigmatizing illness that pose a range of potential psychological challenges to the ALWH. Yet, HIV studies focusing on emotional health including depression symptoms among them are sparce. Further more, there’s a notable absence of culturally adapted, context-specific recommendations for such youth in low middle-income countries including Indonesia. This study investigates the symptoms of depression among ALWH in Indonesia.
METHODS
This cross-sectional study enrolled 143 ALWH ages 13-18 living with HIV in seven cities in Indonesia who have been told about their HIV serostatus. The youth were referred by local HIV nongovernment organizations in each city. The youth’s self-reported symptoms of depression was measured through face-to-face interviews using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9.
RESULTS
Participants’ averaged 15.9 years of age with 55.94% of participants were girls. Of the 143 participants, slightly less than half (45.5%) reported symptoms of moderate to severe depression in the past two weeks. The most frequently reported symptoms were sleep disturbances, appetite/eating problems, and trouble concentrating. Next, the overall rate of suicidal ideation of participants in this study was 15.38%, with a higher rate of frequency found among participants who were acquired at adolescence (19.35%) than perinatally (14.29%). Lastly, the selected model in multivariate analyses showed that girls, becoming infected with HIV through risky behavior, taking ARV infrequently, and having more threatening perceptions of HIV reported greater level of depression symptoms.
CONCLUSIONS
As possibly the first studies of ALWH in Indonesia that examine depression symptoms and factors related to it, the study’s results suggested the importance of developing mental health support and culturally tailored services for ALWH, particularly to reduce depression symptoms by incorporating the factors contributing to it. HIV programs for ALWH could include strategies that reduce adolescents’ negative perception of HIV, routine mental health screening, provide them psychological and social support, and help them in identifying and adopting effective coping methods, and build resilience in overcoming the possible adversities of illness and successfully confronting the challenges of living with HIV.
