Document 1988
 DOCN  M94A1988
 TI    Children and HIV/AIDS: emotional indicators mediating children's
       understanding of their disease.
 DT    9412
 AU    Mendez I; Mendez S; Serafin M; Torres-Ortiz P; Pediatric AIDS Services,
       San Juan AIDS Institute.
 SO    Int Conf AIDS. 1994 Aug 7-12;10(1):406 (abstract no. PD0232). Unique
       Identifier : AIDSLINE ICA10/94370587
 AB    OBJECTIVES: This is part of an ongoing study looking at pediatric
       HIV/AIDS patients. The study measured levels of emotional distress and
       stressors among Puerto Rican children carrying the HIV virus. It
       associated these stressors with their knowledge of having the disease
       and their capacity to cognitively understand them. The data provides an
       emotional, cognitive and developmental map that will inform health care
       providers about the necessary information to handle the psychosocial
       aspects mediating the case-management of the HIV infected child.
       METHODS: A sample of 22 children attending a health care facility
       participated in the study. They were administered two instruments: the
       Bender Visual Motor Gestalt and the Human Figure Drawing Test using
       Koppitz norms. These were analyzed in terms of emotional indicators.
       These results were correlated with: 1) seropositivity status; 2) disease
       progression and 3) knowledge or lack of knowledge of having the disease.
       RESULTS: As expected, visits to health care providers are a major
       stressor in these children lives which can contribute to their emotional
       well-being. The younger asymptomatic children exhibited less emotional
       indicators regardless of their knowledge about the disease. Older,
       asymptomatic children exhibited significantly more emotional indicators
       and scored a lower developmental age. Knowledge of having the disease
       plays an unsignificant role among asymptomatic children but affects more
       seriously symptomatic ones. CONCLUSION: The assessment of emotional
       well-being is a central issue in the case management of the HIV infected
       child. Emotional well-being is at the core of defining their
       understanding and their constructions of their illness. A careful
       assessment of emotional status should be undertaken in conjunction to
       their medical care as it will reveal to health care providers how to
       minimize and alleviate the stress produced by illness and by medical
       treatment.
 DE    Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/PHYSIOPATHOLOGY/*PSYCHOLOGY
       Bender-Gestalt Test  Child  *Emotions  Human  HIV
       Infections/PHYSIOPATHOLOGY/*PSYCHOLOGY  HIV
       Seropositivity/PHYSIOPATHOLOGY/*PSYCHOLOGY  *Knowledge, Attitudes,
       Practice  Neuropsychological Tests  Puerto Rico  Stress,
       Psychological/PREVENTION & CONTROL  MEETING ABSTRACT

       SOURCE: National Library of Medicine.  NOTICE: This material may be
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