A level of social support and intensity of anxiety in patients with AIDS
Bargiel-Matusiewicz, K.
Wiadomosci Lekarskie 54(7-8): 462-471
2001
ISSN/ISBN: 0043-5147 PMID: 11641905 Document Number: 243150
The article is devoted to psychological aspects of functioning of patients with AIDS. The issue may be analysed from different perspectives. The article focuses on two of them. The first--a point of view of the person directly affected by the new illness and the second--a perspective of social phenomena accompanying AIDS. The empirical research have been carried out on the basis of a synthesis of the above mentioned areas and they have made it possible to describe relations between them. The inquiries have concerned mainly the connection between the social support given to the ills and the anxiety experienced by them, resulting from emotional uneasiness. The independent variable, which was social support, has been formulated in a qualitive way, by referring to such subjective measures like: feeling of support, its perceived availability, adequacy. The survey pattern has been prepared on the basis of the claim of existence of the so called main effect i.e. direct relationship between social support and individual's psychophysical comfort. The investigated variables have been measured using the following research tools: The Inventory for Measuring Anxiety as a State and as a Feature, elaborated by C.D. Spielberger and The Scale of Social Support Deficit by K. Kmiecik-Baran. The achieved results have clearly shown the dependence between a level of social support and intensity of the anxiety experienced by the ills with AIDS. Apart from a cognitive value of the fact it is worth to pay attention to a possibility of its practical application.