Family Functioning of People Living with HIV/AIDS Accessing Care at a Nigerian Tertiary Health Centre

Aims: To assess the family functioning and identify its determinants among adult PLWHA at Bowen University Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso.

Study Design: The study is a descriptive cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of the Study: The study was conducted in the Antiretroviral (ARV) Clinic of the Bowen University Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso, Nigeria from January 2014 to March 2014.

Methodology: Sixty-one HIV-infected patients aged 18 years and older were selected using the systematic random sampling. Data were collected using a pre-tested, structured, researcher-administered questionnaire which had a section on respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics and incorporated the General Functioning scale of the Family Assessment Device to assess their family functioning. The data were analysed using SPSS and presented as descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results: The mean age of the 61 respondents was 37.1±8.1 years and 43 (70.5%) of them were females. Most of the respondents were married (65.6%) and the proportion of those with primary education (37.7%) was highest. A mean General Functioning (GF) score of 1.8±0.6 indicated an overall healthy family functioning. The proportion of respondents with healthy family functioning was highest for the married among all marital categories and decreased with increasing level of education. These associations of marital status and level of education with family functioning were statistically significant (P = 0.02 and 0.04, respectively) based on the result of Fisher’s exact test.

Conclusion: The fact that larger proportions of the respondents were married and had low education level was found to have influenced the finding of a high rate of healthy family functioning in this study. Therefore, regular family functioning assessment as part of routine evaluation of PLWHA is suggested, and interventions that can temper the dysfunctional influences of formal education on family functioning should be incorporated into HIV/AIDS care.