Nair VV, Hernandez VR; International Conference on AIDS.

Int Conf AIDS. 2002 Jul 7-12; 14: abstract no. WePeC6245.

Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, United States

BACKGROUND: Critics of risk factor epidemiology have argued that research strategies that focus on practices that put people at risk for HIV or if infected, effect adherence to therapies and care, fail to take into account the social and environmental determinants of health and disease. The purpose of this presentation is to our work in creating and testing the psychometric properties of a self administered scale, the Human Value Questionnaire (HVQ). METHODS: The development and validation of a 50 item Human Value Scale(HVS) measuring a core set of personal values and beliefs is described. Two separate samples of recovering seriously mentally ill HIV+ individuals and a group of attendees at a Human Values conference were surveyed. Data from the first study sample was used to provide the baseline for comparison with the second sample. The second sample confirmed the HVS's reliability and its ability to differentiate between individuals with an active interest with regards to their personal set of values and a group with no special interest or awareness on these issues. RESULTS: Results confirm the scale had an acceptable reliability coefficient of 0.71 for the first sample group comprising of seriously mentally ill HIV+ individuals and 0.81 for the second sample group. As expected there was a normal distribution of scores for the different values for both populations with higher means for the second group. No associations were observed between the socio-demographic variables and specific diagnoses and the Value Domains in the Scale. The study also found that although there was no correlation between the HVS and the Marlowe-Crowne Scale for the second group of workshop attendees, a significant correlation was found for the first group. CONCLUSIONS: The implications of this finding and the relevance of using Marlowe-Crowne Scale as an index for measuring social desirability for this population of recovering seriously mentally ill HIV+ individuals are discussed.

Publication Types:

• Meeting Abstracts

Keywords:

• Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
• Animals
• HIV Infections
• HIV Seropositivity
• Humans
• Psychometrics
• Questionnaires
• Risk Factors
• Social Desirability
• ethics
• methods
• prevention & control
• therapy

Other ID:

• GWAIDS0020291

UI: 102259328

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