Bulletin

Issue: September 2005

News

The quality of life for women with HIV/AIDS

For women in Australia with HIV/AIDS having dependent children means they are significantly more likely to rate their health as 'good or excellent' than women without dependent children.

This is one finding from a new study by La Trobe University's Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS) in its report The Journey Continues - Women Living with HIV in Australia.

The report is the latest in a series about Australians living with HIV/AIDS from the Centre's HIV Futures Survey.

Lead author, Ms Karalyn McDonald, says only 1,200 women are living with HIV in Australia in 2003. World-wide the figure is estimated at nearly 20 million. Nevertheless, women with HIV in Australia report they still experience many challenges and disadvantages associated with infection.

The La Trobe HIV Futures Research Program, which documents these, is the largest of its kind in Australia.

It is designed to provide HIV positive people and their HIV health and funding agencies with a two-yearly picture of the overall health, well-being and social situation of people living with HIV/AIDS. Some of the key findings are:

The majority of women (67.7%) rate their health as 'good or excellent'. Yet four in ten women say their wellbeing is 'poor or fair', a figure almost double since 2001.

Ms McDonald says more women are taking treatment than recorded in previous surveys. 'Most (69.9%) are on anti-retroviral therapy for HIV, and of these 81.7 % experience difficulties, including side effects, remembering to take the drugs and organising meals around their medication.

Poverty, Ms McDonald says, continues to be a threat. A third of the women are living below the poverty line, and almost all (89%) reported some difficulty in meeting the costs of daily living. Half rely on government benefits or pensions as their primary income.

Discrimination is a common experience. More than half (53.8%) report less favourable treatment at medical services as a result of having HIV.

Ms McDonald says nearly two-thirds have children, 45.3% of them dependent children with an average age of 10 years. 'These women are significantly more likely to rate their health as good or excellent than women without dependent children.'