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Coping strategies of HIV-affected households in Ghana

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Public Health, February 2015
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Title
Coping strategies of HIV-affected households in Ghana
Published in
BMC Public Health, February 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12889-015-1418-x
Pubmed ID
Authors

Amos Laar, Abubakar Manu, Matilda Laar, Angela El-Adas, Richard Amenyah, Kyeremeh Atuahene, Dave Quarshie, Andrew Anthony Adjei, Isabella Quakyi

Abstract

HIV and negative coping mechanisms have a cyclical relationship. HIV infections may lead to the adoption of coping strategies, which may have undesired, negative consequences. We present data on the various coping mechanisms that HIV-affected households in Ghana resort to. We collected data on coping strategies, livelihood activities, food consumption, and asset wealth from a nationally representative sample of 1,745 Ghanaian HIV-affected households. We computed coping strategies index (CSI), effective dependency rate, and asset wealth using previously validated methodologies. Various dehumanizing coping strategies instituted by the HIV-affected households included skipping an entire day's meal (13%), reducing portion sizes (61.3%), harvesting immature crops (7.6%), and begging (5.6%). Two-thirds of the households were asset poor. Asset-poor households had higher CSI than asset-rich households (p <0.001). CSI were also higher among female-headed households and lower where the education level of the household head is higher. Households caring for chronically ill members recorded higher CSI in comparison with their counterparts without the chronically ill (p < 0.05). Institution of degrading measures by HIV-affected households in reaction to threat of food insecurity was prevalent. The three most important coping strategies used by households were limiting portion size (61.3%), reducing number of meals per day (59.5%) and relying on less expensive foods (56.2%). The least employed strategies included household member going begging (5.6%), eating elsewhere (8.7%) and harvesting immature crop (7.6%). Given that household assets, and caring for the chronically ill were associated with high CSI, a policy focusing on helping HIV-affected households gradually build up their asset base, or targeting households caring for chronically ill member(s) with conditional household-level support may be reasonable.

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The data shown below were collected from the profile of 1 X user who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 132 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Ghana 1 <1%
Unknown 131 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 32 24%
Student > Ph. D. Student 14 11%
Student > Bachelor 14 11%
Student > Postgraduate 12 9%
Other 7 5%
Other 18 14%
Unknown 35 27%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 29 22%
Nursing and Health Professions 27 20%
Social Sciences 11 8%
Psychology 9 7%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 4 3%
Other 18 14%
Unknown 34 26%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 01 December 2017.
All research outputs
#14,805,023
of 22,794,367 outputs
Outputs from BMC Public Health
#10,892
of 14,855 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#142,534
of 255,034 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Public Health
#166
of 252 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,794,367 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 32nd percentile – i.e., 32% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 14,855 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 13.9. This one is in the 23rd percentile – i.e., 23% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 255,034 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 41st percentile – i.e., 41% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 252 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 32nd percentile – i.e., 32% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.