Factors Associated with Psychosocial Services in Ogun State, Nigeria

BACKGROUND: Belonging to a social network group may influence a person's decisions to engage in desired behavior. AIM: The objective of our study was to determine factors associated with utilization of psychosocial group services among people living with human immunodeficiency virus acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (PLWHAs) in a Teaching Hospital in Sagamu, Southwestern Nigeria. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This was an analytical cross-sectional study. All consenting PLHAs who attended the anti-retroviral clinic (ART) clinic during the study period were recruited into the study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect relevant information and a total of 205 PLWHAs were interviewed. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: The data analysis focused on univariate frequency table and bivariate cross tabulations that identify important relationships between the variables. Odds ratio (OR) at 95% confidence level (CI) and Chi-squared and t-tests were also computed. RESULTS: The overall point utilization of psychosocial services among the PLWHAs was 23.4%. Utilization of psychosocial services was statistically significantly associated with religion (χ(2) = 11.74, P = 0.003), disclosure of human immunodeficiency virus status (χ(2) = 9.18, P = 0.01) and satisfactory self-reported health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL) (χ(2) = 5.67, P = 0.017) while sex (χ(2) = 0.02, P = 0.96), education (χ(2) = 4.67, P = 0.32) tribe (χ(2) = 1.46, P = 0.48) adherence to ART drugs (χ(2) = 0.44, P = 0.51), mental health status (χ(2) = 0.64, P = 0.42) and occupation (χ(2) = 3.61, P = 0.61) were not. The only predictor of utilization of psychosocial group services was religion (OR = 0.44, CI = 0.23-0.84). CONCLUSION: This study shows the effectiveness of the psychosocial networks group in improving the overall HRQOL of the PLWHAs.