Cumulative psychosocial risk is a salient predictor of depressive symptoms among vertically HIV-infected and HIV-affected adolescents at the Kenyan coast

BACKGROUND Little is known of mental health outcomes among vertically HIV-infected or HIVaffected adolescents in Africa.

OBJECTIVES The current study set out to describe depressive symptoms and their correlates among vertically HIV-infected and HIV-affected adolescents at the Kenyan Coast.

METHODS 130 adolescents (vertically HIV-infected [n = 44], HIV-affected [n = 53], and unexposed [n = 33]) and their caregivers participated in this cross-sectional study. An adapted version of the Beck Depression Inventory-11 (BDI) was administered to examine depressive symptoms in both adolescents and caregivers, together with measures of sociodemographic, medical, and anthropometric characteristics.

FINDINGS Our analysis indicated a main effect of HIV status on mean BDI scores in HIV-infected (18.4 [SD = 8.3) and HIV-affected (16.8 [SD = 7.3]) adolescents compared to the community controls (12.0 [SD = 7.9]), F (2, 127) = 6.704, P =.002, eta(2) =.095. Post hoc analysis showed that BDI scores of HIV-infected adolescents were higher than those of community controls (P

CONCLUSIONS Both HIV-infected and HIV-affected adolescents are at a high risk of experiencing depressive symptoms, largely due to the multiple psychosocial risk factors in their environment. The provision of adequate psychosocial support and counseling needs to become an integral part of the care program for adolescents from families living with HIV/AIDS at the Kenyan coast and other similar settings.