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.

Automated summary

This study translated and validated the disease-specific social support instrument in Chinese, finding high internal consistency. Results showed that higher educational level, personal income, CD4 cell count, and shorter duration of antiretroviral therapy were significantly associated with a higher level of social support.