An HIV Symptom Management Intervention for African-American mothers Essay

An HIV Symptom Management Intervention for African-American mothers - Essay Example The main purpose of this study was to "determine the efficacy of an HIV self-care symptom management intervention in reducing emotional distress and improving health among low income African American mothers with HIV." The study was based on the Maternal HIV Self-Care Symptom Management framework. The framework was adapted from the University of California-San Francisco model for symptom management as well as the current literature and studies on African-American women with HIV. As in most studies, a control and an intervention group were formed. In both groups, the HIV infected African-American women reported low income and were mothers of at least one child under the age of 9. 17 grandmothers were also involved in this study, 8 of which were placed in the intervention group. In the intervention group, the implemented procedures regarding the Maternal HIV Self-Care Symptom Management framework were the same for all subjects. The procedures regarding data collection were also the same. Data was collected during 3 data collection points: once during the enrollment of the patients in the clinics, and twice primarily in their homes. Between data collection points, the mothers were telephoned twice, in order to help with retention.