Heterogeneous longitudinal trajectories of sense of coherence and associated characteristics among newly diagnosed HIV-positive men who have sex with men: A cohort study.
Mimi Zhai, Yamin Li, Jianhai Long and 2 others
PMID 42521396WHAT IT FOUND
Newly diagnosed HIV-positive men who have sex with men lost psychological coping resources on average over the follow-up period.
Distinct trajectories appeared, and stigma, stress and depression were linked with poorer coping.
Key findings
01Sense of coherence scores fell significantly over 6 months, from 56.17 to 47.05 on a 13 to 91 scale.
02Four sense-of-coherence trajectories emerged: Slow Decline, Rapid Decline, Continuously Low and Active Transition.
03HIV stigma, stress and depression were associated with lower sense of coherence across all trajectory groups, while social support was associated with higher sense of coherence in the Continuously Low group.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Participants were recruited from one tertiary hospital and one social work service center in Changsha, China, using convenience sampling. All measures were self-reported, and CD4 counts were sometimes self-reported when portal access was not possible. Follow-up was 6 months only, so longer-term patterns were not observed. Some clinical confounders were not included in the primary model. The study was observational and did not test any intervention, so it cannot show that stigma, stress, support or other factors caused changes in sense of coherence.
Declared interests
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the suggested cognitive-behavioral therapy, peer support or digital follow-up as treatments shown to improve sense of coherence. This was an observational cohort study. It measured trajectories and associations, not the effect of any intervention.