CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Learning what works best in helping low-income black mothers cope with HIV is the goal of a new study now under way at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"We are trying to help women learn more about infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and cope better both with the disease and their feelings about it," said Dr. Margaret S. Miles, professor at the UNC-CH School of Nursing.
The study Miles directs, supported by the National Institute of Nursing Research, will determine the effectiveness of a program of home visits that involve counseling and teaching. She and her colleagues hope the program will prove successful enough that it can be adopted around the United States to help thousands of women with HIV or other conditions.
"Specifically, we are helping women gain an understanding of HIV as a chronic disease which can be treated with medications and which necessitates good health promotion and disease prevention to extend life and improve health," she said. "We use mothers' concerns about staying healthy so they can take care of their children to motivate them."
Information packets discuss diet and exercise; understanding, preventing and managing infections; preventing and managing female problems; and coping with depression, thinking problems, apathy and skin conditions. Registered nurses visit mothers at home six times in three months and establish therapeutic relationships in which they encourage patients to share their feelings and concerns.
About half the women receive in-home visits, while the others in a control group receive only standard care. So far, 71 women have been recruited.
"We collect mental and physical health information from all participants before and after the intervention," Miles said. "Women in the intervention group appear to like what we are doing and overall feel they have learned a lot about how to manage their lives while infected with HIV.
"Several women have indicated that once they were diagnosed with HIV, they thought they were doomed to die and lived constricted lives because of their misunderstanding about the infection," she said. "A particularly effective aspect of this program has been the focus on depression, which is a common and serious problem these women experience."
Others involved in the study, all at UNC-CH, include Drs. Diane Holditch-Davis, associate professor of nursing: Joe Eron, associate professor of medicine; Cort Pederson, associate professor of psychiatry; and Peg Burchinal, director of the design and statistical computing unit at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center. Research associate Lynda Bell of nursing and RN Beth Black, project manager, also are participating.
HIV infections among black women in the rural South, especially North Carolina, have been increasingly steadily in recent years, Miles said.
Note: Miles can be reached at 919-966-3620 (w) or 942-3078 (h).