Young Same-Gender-Loving Men (SGLM) Living with HIV Continue to Experience Symptoms that May Impair Their Retention in Care.

Over half of HIV infections in the U.S. are among young gay, bisexual, and other same-gender-loving men (SGLM). Symptoms affecting these individuals must be clarified in order to be detected and addressed by health care providers. This report describes the symptom prevalence in young SGLM living with HIV. Study participants in an urban context experienced high symptom burden with a median of 6.2 symptoms despite antiretroviral treatment with viral suppression. Most common symptoms included fatigue (57%), depression (54%), insomnia (53%), anxiety (44%), dizziness (33%), and headache (33%). This study showed that young SGLM with HIV experience a high number of symptoms given their age. Health care providers should work to alleviate this symptom burden that affects patients' quality of life and may influence engagement in care.

Examining the social context in the caregiving experience: correlates of global self-esteem among adult daughter caregivers to an older parent with cancer.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the associations between various patient, disease, situation, and caregiver characteristics (organized by five conceptual domains) and global self-esteem among caregiver daughters to parents with cancer. METHOD: Dyads comprised of 237 cancer outpatients and their adult caregiving daughter completed structured telephone interviews. RESULTS: Two of the five domains of potential correlates significantly predicted caregiving daughters' global self-esteem-daughters' sociodemographics and constraints on/facilitators of caregiving. Daughters' overall sense of self-worth was directly correlated with their household income and inversely correlated with greater depressive affect and the number of patient needs for which someone else provided assistance. It was also correlated with the daughters' other role obligations. A higher sense of self-worth was associated with either being employed or having to care for a child/grandchild; a lower sense of self-worth was associated with having a spouse/partner. DISCUSSION: The present analysis documents the complexity of social connectedness, demonstrating that various role obligations contribute to caregiving daughters' global self-esteem in different ways. In the context of assuming cancer careprovision, daughters' existing repertoire of social roles may possibly mediate the stress associated with their care involvement or serve as a buffer against the strain of the caregiving experience.