As the course of AIDS progresses, and patients become more debilitated, they experience enormous needs for support and practical assistance. An extensive body of literature indicates that support from family and friends is associated with fewer psychological symptoms and lower utilization of formal community services. The nature of pay men's social networks, however, raise questions about whether adequate social support is available to them. This study will examine the levels of emotional and instrumental support provided to gay men with AIDS from their personal network of family and friends, and how the levels of support available from these sources in turn influence utilization of formal community services. There are three Specific Aims: (1) To describe the sources (family, friends, community services) and kinds (instrumental and emotional) of social support available to AIDS patients, and how these vary with: (a) length of illness and disease severity; (b) the degree of cognitive impairment; (c) functional incapacity; and, (d) the patient's personal characteristics; (2) To describe how availability of different kinds of social support from the patient's family and friends are related to utilization of formal community and health care services; (3) To evaluate how levels and kinds of social support are related to psychological morbidity throughout the disease course. A prospective longitudinal research design is adopted. Over a five-year period, we plan to accrue approximately 200 patients with AIDS and to interview them and their primary caretaker at four-month intervals throughout the course of the patient's illness.
| Siegel, K; Karus, D; Raveis, V H (1997) Correlates of change in depressive symptomatology among gay men with AIDS. Health Psychol 16:230-8 |
| Siegel, K; Raveis, V H; Karus, D (1994) Psychological well-being of gay men with AIDS: contribution of positive and negative illness-related network interactions to depressive mood. Soc Sci Med 39:1555-63 |
