Health locus of control, resilience and hope among none, recent and prolonged antiretroviral therapy users

Abstract

The overall aim of this study was to compare health locus of control, resilience and hope among patients who none users of Antiretroviral Therapy (ART), those with prolonged use of ART and those that have just recently started using ART; and to evaluate the contribution of health locus of control and resilience to hope. A causal-comparative design was adopted in this study. Purposive sampling was used to select 398 patients from 10,853 patients. Data analysis involved descriptive and comparative statistics. Findings of the study revealed a significant difference in internal health locus of control of the patients with prolonged use of ART and those that had just recently started using ART. There was no significant difference in chance health locus of control, powerful others health locus of control and resilience for HIV positive adults with prolonged use of ART and those that had just recently started using ART. There was a significant difference in hope of the patients who were non-users of ART, patients with prolonged use of ART and those that have just recently started using ART. There was a significant effect of the internal health locus of control and resilience on hope. There was a significant effect of the resilience and chance health locus of control on hope and a significant effect of the resilience and powerful others health locus of control on hope. It was concluded that only internal health locus of control and hope had a significant difference among patients with prolonged use of ART and those that had just recently started using ART. Lastly, there was a significant combined contribution of resilience and health locus of control on hope. Various psychological interventions such as counseling, social modeling, psycho-education, behavioral activation, stress management and social network activation were recommended alongside ART to improve patients’ internal health locus of control, chance health locus of control, powerful others health locus of control, resilience and hope.