advertisements in magazines and referrals from other studies. Subjects were excluded
from the study if they were taking anti-viral medication, had a history of alcohol/
substance abuse, a history of psychiatric disorder, or had a severe head trauma. All
subjects were aware of their HIV+ status and either had no symptoms or a sign of
physical infection of no more than three months. Their average age was 33.8 years; 72.6
per cent were native English speakers; nearly half had a first degree; the majority were in
full-time employment; 66.1 per cent described themselves as exclusively homosexual;
51.6 per cent were single; 30.6 per cent were in a monogamous relationship and the
remainder were either in an open relationship, divorced or widowed.
Design The study was cross-sectional with all subjects completing all measures once.
Measures The subjects completed the following psychosocial, behavioural control
and physiological measures.
1 Psychosocial measures
Life Experience Survey: this assesses the count and impact of life events over the
previous six months. For the present study, the authors focused on the number
of life events and categorized subjects as either mild (0–5), moderate (6–10), high
(11–15) or very high (>15).
Social Provisions Scale: this measures the individual’s perception of available social
support. The authors used a shortened 20-item version and computed a total
‘perceived social support’ score.
The Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced Scale: this is a 57-item scale, which
measures coping strategies. The present study examined these items in terms of
(i) active coping (made up of all the problem focused strategies, such as planning,
suppression of competing activities, restraint coping, seeking instrumental
support, active coping, and three of the emotion-focused scales, such as seeking
emotional support, positive reinterpretation, acceptance); (ii) disengagement/
denial (which is made up of behavioural and mental disengagement items
and denial); (iii) focus on and venting emotions; and (iv) turning to religion (see
Chapter 3 for a discussion of coping).
Profile of Mood States: this is a 65-item scale of mood-related items. The present
study computed a composite ‘emotional distress score’ composed of items relating
to anxiety, depression, fatigue and confusion.2 Measures to control for behaviour. Subjects completed measures of diet (using a
food frequency questionnaire), alcohol and substance use (e.g. marijuana, cocaine,
LSD, nitrate inhalants, amphetamines and opiods), smoking behaviour and prescribed
medication. These were included in order to determine whether any differences in
immune status were due to the psychosocial or behavioural factors. Measures of
blood proteins, vitamins and minerals were also taken.
3 Physiological measures. Measurements were taken of (i) anti HIV-1 antibody to
confirm the subjects’ HIV-positive status; and (ii) NKCC.
HIV AND CANCER 337