A Social Ecological Approach to Understanding Life Satisfaction among Socio-Economically Disadvantaged People Living with HIV/AIDS in Taiwan: Implications for Social Work Practice

The purpose of this study was to assess multilevel correlates of life satisfaction among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Taiwan, with a specific focus on marginalised men who have sex with men (MSM) and people who use injection drugs (PWID) in order to inform contextually relevant social work interventions consistent with an ecological approach. In 2011, we conducted a cross-sectional survey among a convenience sample of Taiwanese PLWHA (n = 355). Three multiple linear regressions (1-full sample; 2-MSM; 3-PWID) were conducted with life satisfaction as the outcome and socio-demographic (e.g. age), health (e.g. medication adherence), individual/intra-personal (e.g. internalised HIV-related stigma), social/inter-personal (e.g. inter-personal empowerment) and community/structural (e.g. HIV community participation) correlates. The fully adjusted model accounted for 34.4 per cent of the variance in explaining life satisfaction (F(17, 302)=10.84, p<0.001). Higher personal empowerment, lower AIDS knowledge, higher inter-personal empowerment, higher HIV community participation and higher income were significantly associated with greater life satisfaction. For subgroup comparisons, PWID had a statistically significantly lower mean life satisfaction score compared to MSM (p<0.001). Social workers can implement empowerment-oriented interventions to promote life satisfaction among Taiwanese PLWHA. More research is necessary to understand the experiences of Taiwanese PWID that may influence life satisfaction.