Personality Types as Determinants of Quality of Life Among Patients Receiving Antiretroviral Treatment

Abstract

The study investigated personality types as determinants of quality of life among HIV/AIDS patients receiving antiretroviral treatment at National Hospital FCT - Abuja. The study adopted a cross sectional survey design and also adopted a purposive sampling technique to recruit participants in the study. 177 participants (Male - 59, 33.3 %; Female 118, 66.7 %) were purposively sampled from the population of HIV/AIDS patients receiving treatment in National Hospital, Abuja via an online sample size calculator. Two hypotheses were tested at .05 significant levels. The result of the first hypothesis revealed that Conscientiousness (F= 5.761; df=7; p < .05), Neuroticism (F= 6.257; df=8; p < .05), Openness to experience (F= 13.402; df=8p < .05), Extraversion (F= .340; df=7; P < .05), and Agreeableness (F= 5.885; df=6; p < .05) had a significant influence on quality of life. Further analysis indicated that personality traits significantly influence quality of life of HIV/AIDS patients (F= 4.915; R²= .788; p < .05). The result of hypothesis two indicated that male participants significantly differ than female participants (t= 3.256; df=177; p < .05) on quality of life among HIV/AIDS patients. The study concluded that Personality traits and sex (gender) significantly influence quality of life of HIV/AIDS patients. Based on the findings, it is recommended that patients with HIV infection should be given proper psycho-education and psychological intervention. also community based intervention should employ quality of health as one of its principles in service delivery so as to promote wellbeing at the grassroots level and better HIV/AIDS healthcare delivery; HIV/AIDS healthcare providers (Antiretroviral Clinics) should be continually intimated and retrained on the benefits of quality of health promotion; and more quality of health surveys should be carried out here in Nigeria so as to keep tract of patients’ functional states since it has the potential to improve care by monitoring and evaluating the impact of HIV/AIDS treatment outcomes.