Community Health and Preventive Medicine Commons^™

Loneliness And Drinking In An Hiv Positive Population, Erica Kiernan, Krishna Chhabria

Public Health Collection

Background: Loneliness is a common outcome in the HIV+ community due to the stigma associated with it leading to social isolation. Studies show HIV+ individuals who experience significant loneliness do engage in risky sexual behaviors. Alcohol use also has adverse consequences in this population, interfering with antiretroviral medication adherence thus an increased likelihood of further risky sexual behaviors.

Hypothesis: HIV+ individuals who experience an increase in loneliness will have an increase in hazardous drinking behaviors.

Methods: 100 patients from an HIV treatment clinic in Jacksonville, Florida were administered the AUDIT scale to measure drinking habits and UCLA loneliness scale. …