Social support, depression, and quality of life among people living with HIV in Guangxi, China.

This study collected data from 2987 people living with HIV in China and employed structural equation modeling to examine the relationships among social support, depression, and quality of life (QOL). Depression was the strongest predictor of the psychological, energy, and mobility aspects of QOL with β = -.70 (p < .001), β = -.47 (p < .001), and β = -.44 (p < .001), respectively. Emotional social support was a significant predictor of depression (β = -.12, p < .001), mobility (β = .20, p < .001), energy (β = .15, p < .001), and psychological aspect (β = .06, p < .05). Informational social support was a significant predictor of mobility (β = -.08, p < .01), energy (β = -.06, p < .05), and psychological aspect (β = -.07, p < .001). Functional social support was only negatively associated with mobility (β = -.16, p < .01). Therefore, depression had a negative effect on physical (perceived mobility and energy) and psychological (positive/negative feelings, thinking, learning, memory, and concentration) aspects of QOL. Emotional social support had both direct and indirect effects (through its buffering effect on depression) on better QOL. However, the associations between informational social support and the three aspects of QOL were negative; and informational social support did not have a buffering effect on depression. Functional social support was negatively associated with mobility, which means provision of functional support to PLHIV may not necessarily be associated with better QOL. The findings confirm that HIV/AIDS care in China should consider the conceptual differences between emotional, informational, and functional support.