Nutritional Status and Health Characteristics of People Living with HIV/AIDS

Background: Diagnosis and treatment of HIV infection may impact the individual's life, including the physical aspect such as the length of HIV diagnosed, WHO stage, the ART, and the psychological aspect such as the level of stress. People living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) have an increased need for energy but they have symptoms of lack of nutrition intake. Therefore, PLWHA has a risk of low nutrition status. The aims of this study were to examine the relationship between nutritional status and health characteristics among HIV/AIDS patients. Methods: A cross-sectional analytical design was conducted among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in outpatients’ hospital. A purposive sampling method was used and the sample size was 78 respondents. Data were collected using questionnaire of were the socio-demographic, health characteristic, and nutritional status. The cross-tabulation calculations used chi-square were presented to identify the relationship between nutritional status and health characteristics. Results: The majority of respondents had good health characteristics include the length of HIV diagnosis more than 6 months (79.5%), clinical WHO stage I (61.5%), no stress level (94.9%), and the first choice of ART (83.3%). The nutritional status reported that the majority of the respondents had normal BMI (61.5%), MUAC not at risk (>23,5 cm) (71.8%), and a moderate level of energy intake (37.2%). There were no significant associations between the nutritional status and health characteristics (p > 0.05). Conclusion: The good condition of health characteristics among PLWHA in this study impacted the level the nutritional status.