Translation and Validation: Chinese Version of the HIV-Related Social Support Scale

Purpose: Social support is increasingly recognized to be important in care of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH), we firstly translate and validate the disease-targeted social support instrument in Chinese and to explore the correlation with WHOQOL-HIV. Patients and Methods: We established content validity for HIV-related social support scale (HSSS) and administered the resultant questionnaire to 310 PLWH. Descriptive statistics were generated for each of the variables of general characteristics; student t-test was used to compare the different groups. Results: The HSSS demonstrated a high level of internal consistency, both within each subscale and with the total score; all Cronbach's alpha values exceeded a priori threshold of >= 0.70. The HSSS cores were positively correlated with WHOQOL-HIV total scores (Pearson correlation: 0.39, P < 0.001). We also found that higher educational level, personal income, CD4 cell count, and shorter duration of antiretroviral therapy are significantly associated with a higher level of social support (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Social support may improve quality of life for PLWH, Chinese version of HIV-related social support scale can be used in future clinical practice.