As of December 1996, approximately 3,223 children under 13 years and 3, 000 adolescents 13 to 18 years were reported to be living with AIDS. Other HIV+ children are not yet diagnosed with AIDS. Home care provided by family members is now an essential component of pediatric HIV/AIDS care. Little is known about what sustains caregivers over the years of the child's illness. Further, the economic value of this home care needs to be estimated to determine policy regarding the allocation of resources of HIV/AIDS care. This study will use a matched 3-group comparison design with repeated assessments at 3-month intervals over 6 months. Participants will be recruited from clinics at the University of California-San Francisco, Children' Hospital of Oakland, and New York-Cornell Hospital. The study will: 1) Document the types and amount of home care (technical and non- technical disease-related care, health care management) provided by maternal caregivers' (biological mother or other maternal caregiver including other female kin, foster mother, adoptive mother) of children with HIV/AIDS, and compare it with normative home care provided by maternal caregivers of healthy children. 2) Identify the unique contribution of the child's HIV serostatus and maternal caregivers' HIV serostatus to caregiving burden and maternal caregivers' mental health by comparing biological mothers and other maternal caregivers of children with HIV/AIDS to biological mothers and other maternal caregivers of children with other chronic illnesses. 3) Test the utility of coping theory for explaining the relationship between the stresses of caregiving and maternal caregivers' burden and mental health in the three caregiving contexts. 4) Estimate the economic costs of the home care given by maternal caregivers of children with HIV/AIDS relative to the costs of all home care given to these children, controlling for normative maternal care.
| Moskowitz, Judith Tedlie (2003) Positive affect predicts lower risk of AIDS mortality. Psychosom Med 65:620-6 |
