Tahira Yousaf, Zainab F Zadeh, Shahid Iqbal, Muhammad Mumtaz Khan.
An examination of gender differences in the levels of depression and social support among HIV+, gonadal cancer and hepatitis B & C patients.
Khyber Med Uni Med J Jan ;6(4):172-7.

Objective: To examine the differences in the level of depression and social support in HIV+, Gonadal Cancer and Hepatitis B & C male and female patients in tertiary care public hospitals and different organization at Karachi. Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical College, Civil hospital, Sindh Government hospital, Pakistan Society for HIV patients & Sindh AIDS control program at Karachi, from July 2009 to October 2009. Three hundred adult diagnosed patients (100 HIV+, 100 Gonadal Cancer, 100 Hepatitis B & C) volunteered for the study and the sample was selected from Tertiary Care Public Hospitals and different organizations at Karachi. Cases with co- morbidity of other medical illnesses were excluded which were screened out while completing semi structured interview form. The ages of participants in sample ranged from 20 to 27 years with the mean age of 23.85 years. Majority of the participants belonged to lower and middle class. Urdu translated version of Depression questionnaire and Social Support Scale were administered. Purposive and snowball sampling methods were used for data collection. Results: The results indicated significant difference (t = -4.043, p < .05) between male and female patients on the variable of Social Support and also shows significant difference (t = 4.916, p < .05) between male and female patients on the variable of depression. Conclusion: There are significant differences in the levels of depression and social support between male and female HIV+, Gonadal Cancer and Hepatitis B & C patients.

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