In India, among persons living with human immunodeficiency virus/ acquired immune deficiency syndrome, 88.55% are in the age group of 15-49 years, out of which 27.8% are in the age group of 15-29 years. Comprehensive and diligent self-care is important for the affected people because of the chronic nature of the disease. The aim of this study was to develop and assess the effectiveness of self- care intervention guidelines in reducing the anxiety of persons living with human immunodeficiency virus. Adult subjects on antiretroviral therapy in any clinical stage were selected using systematic random sampling technique. An experimental research design was adopted and State Trait Anxiety Inventory Scale was used to measure the anxiety. A total of 150 subjects were recruited with 75 in the control and 75 in the experimental group using the permuted block randomization. Data collection was done at three time points at the antiretroviral therapy clinic. The mean age of subjects in both the groups was almost similar (control-40.86 ± 8.74, experimental-39.34 ± 7.38) which reflects that subjects are in their productive age group. The subjects’  mean score difference on anxiety between the control and experimental group was  4.29, 3.81, and 5.41 in the pre-test, post-test I and post-test II respectively at p<0.001. Based on the above findings, the study concluded that the self- care intervention guidelines is an essential and effective intervention in reducing the anxiety of people affected with human immunodeficiency virus.

Keywords: Anxiety, Persons Living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Self- Care Intervention Guidelines.

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Dr Balasaraswathi Seetharaman

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