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Prevalence, predictors, and association of probable non-specific psychological distress and depression with HIV viral load among postpartum women in Cape Town, South Africa

Background: Psychological distress and depressive symptoms are prevalent among postpartum women living with HIV and may affect engagement in HIV care. We examined the prevalence and predictors of probable non-specific psychological distress and depressive symptoms and their association with elevated...

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Main Author: Arendse, Gwendoline
Other Authors: Myer, Landon
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Public Health and Family Medicine 2023
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access_status_str Open Access
author Arendse, Gwendoline
author2 Myer, Landon
author_browse Arendse, Gwendoline
Myer, Landon
author_facet Myer, Landon
Arendse, Gwendoline
author_sort Arendse, Gwendoline
collection Thesis
description Background: Psychological distress and depressive symptoms are prevalent among postpartum women living with HIV and may affect engagement in HIV care. We examined the prevalence and predictors of probable non-specific psychological distress and depressive symptoms and their association with elevated viral load (VL) in Cape Town, South Africa. Methods: This was a secondary analysis of data from the Postpartum Adherence Clubs for Antiretroviral Therapy trial which enrolled women who were initiated on antiretroviral therapy during the index pregnancy, had a VL 1000 copies/mL) through 24 months postpartum. Results: Among 401 women, 8% and 5% had elevated levels of psychological distress and depression, respectively. After adjusting for socio-demographic, obstetric, maternal, and HIV-related covariates, completion of some high school (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.06; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.01–0.55) and multiple infant delivery (aOR 12.82; 95% CI 1.25–127.11) were associated with elevated levels of psychological distress. Depressive symptoms were not associated with any of the covariates in an adjusted model. Neither psychological distress nor depressive symptoms were independently associated with viraemia at 24 months postpartum in a multivariable model. There were no significant differences between women with and without mental health-related outcomes in the time to elevated VL through 24 months postpartum. Conclusion: Non-specific psychological distress and depression remain prevalent among postpartum women living with HIV. Further research should explore the longitudinal effect of mental health-related outcomes and VL and interventions should be implemented to improve mental health-related problems in this population.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:01.081Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2023
publishDateRange 2023
publishDateSort 2023
publisher Department of Public Health and Family Medicine
publisherStr Department of Public Health and Family Medicine
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/37018 Prevalence, predictors, and association of probable non-specific psychological distress and depression with HIV viral load among postpartum women in Cape Town, South Africa Arendse, Gwendoline Myer, Landon Odayar, Jasantha Epidemiology and Biostatistics Background: Psychological distress and depressive symptoms are prevalent among postpartum women living with HIV and may affect engagement in HIV care. We examined the prevalence and predictors of probable non-specific psychological distress and depressive symptoms and their association with elevated viral load (VL) in Cape Town, South Africa. Methods: This was a secondary analysis of data from the Postpartum Adherence Clubs for Antiretroviral Therapy trial which enrolled women who were initiated on antiretroviral therapy during the index pregnancy, had a VL 1000 copies/mL) through 24 months postpartum. Results: Among 401 women, 8% and 5% had elevated levels of psychological distress and depression, respectively. After adjusting for socio-demographic, obstetric, maternal, and HIV-related covariates, completion of some high school (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.06; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.01–0.55) and multiple infant delivery (aOR 12.82; 95% CI 1.25–127.11) were associated with elevated levels of psychological distress. Depressive symptoms were not associated with any of the covariates in an adjusted model. Neither psychological distress nor depressive symptoms were independently associated with viraemia at 24 months postpartum in a multivariable model. There were no significant differences between women with and without mental health-related outcomes in the time to elevated VL through 24 months postpartum. Conclusion: Non-specific psychological distress and depression remain prevalent among postpartum women living with HIV. Further research should explore the longitudinal effect of mental health-related outcomes and VL and interventions should be implemented to improve mental health-related problems in this population. 2023-02-23T10:19:40Z 2023-02-23T10:19:40Z 2022 2023-02-20T12:12:50Z Master Thesis Masters MPH http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37018 eng application/pdf Department of Public Health and Family Medicine Faculty of Health Sciences
spellingShingle Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Arendse, Gwendoline
Prevalence, predictors, and association of probable non-specific psychological distress and depression with HIV viral load among postpartum women in Cape Town, South Africa
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Prevalence, predictors, and association of probable non-specific psychological distress and depression with HIV viral load among postpartum women in Cape Town, South Africa
title_full Prevalence, predictors, and association of probable non-specific psychological distress and depression with HIV viral load among postpartum women in Cape Town, South Africa
title_fullStr Prevalence, predictors, and association of probable non-specific psychological distress and depression with HIV viral load among postpartum women in Cape Town, South Africa
title_full_unstemmed Prevalence, predictors, and association of probable non-specific psychological distress and depression with HIV viral load among postpartum women in Cape Town, South Africa
title_short Prevalence, predictors, and association of probable non-specific psychological distress and depression with HIV viral load among postpartum women in Cape Town, South Africa
title_sort prevalence predictors and association of probable non specific psychological distress and depression with hiv viral load among postpartum women in cape town south africa
topic Epidemiology and Biostatistics
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37018
work_keys_str_mv AT arendsegwendoline prevalencepredictorsandassociationofprobablenonspecificpsychologicaldistressanddepressionwithhivviralloadamongpostpartumwomenincapetownsouthafrica