ArticleJournal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999)2020
Knowledge of HIV Status Is Associated With a Decrease in the Severity of Depressive Symptoms Among Female Sex Workers in Uganda and Zambia.
Article in Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Mental health problems among female sex workers in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Depression and quality of life among Thai and migrant sex workers in Thailand: a cross-sectional study.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Article
- Quantifying intersectional stigma in HIV prevention contexts: adaptation and validation of a scale among female sex workers in Namibia.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Retention and effectiveness of group interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT-G) to treat depression at scale in Uganda and Zambia.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Mental health burden among females living with HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- The relationship between underage initiation of selling sex and depression among female sex workers in Eswatini.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Adaptation and psychometric evaluation of a scale to measure oral pre-exposure prophylaxis-related stigma among key and vulnerable populations in Kenya.Journal of the International AIDS Society · 2022Article
- Construct validity and internal consistency of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) depression screening measure translated into two Ugandan languages.Psychiatry research communications · 2021Article
- Unintended uses, meanings, and consequences: HIV self-testing among female sex workers in urban Uganda.AIDS care · 2021Article
- Prevalence and factors associated with major depression among female sex workers in post-conflict Gulu district: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2021Article
- "But I Gathered My Courage": HIV Self-Testing as a Pathway of Empowerment Among Ugandan Female Sex Workers.Qualitative health research · 2021Article
- HIV self-testing: finding its way in the prevention tool box.BMC medicine · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 6 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundKnowledge of HIV-positive status may result in depressive symptoms, which may be a concern to scaling novel HIV testing interventions that move testing outside the health system and away from counselor support.
settingUganda and Zambia.
methodsWe used longitudinal data from 2 female sex worker (FSW) cohorts in Uganda (n = 960) and Zambia (n = 965). Over 4 months, participants had ample opportunity to HIV testing using standard-of-care services or self-tests. At baseline and 4 months, we measured participants' perceived knowledge of HIV status, severity of depressive symptoms (continuous PHQ-9 scale, 0-27 points), and prevalence of likely depression (PHQ-9 scores ≥10). We estimated associations using individual fixed-effects estimation.
resultsCompared with unknown HIV status, knowledge of HIV-negative status was significantly associated with a decrease in depressive symptoms of 1.06 points in Uganda (95% CI -1.79 to -0.34) and 1.68 points in Zambia (95% CI -2.70 to -0.62). Knowledge of HIV-positive status was significantly associated with a decrease in depressive symptoms of 1.01 points in Uganda (95% CI -1.82 to -0.20) and 1.98 points in Zambia (95% CI -3.09 to -0.88). The prevalence of likely depression was not associated with knowledge of HIV status in Uganda but was associated with a 14.1% decrease with knowledge of HIV-negative status (95% CI -22.1% to -6.0%) and a 14.3% decrease with knowledge of HIV-positive status (95% CI -23.9% to -4.5%) in Zambia.
conclusionsKnowledge of HIV status, be it positive or negative, was significantly associated with a decrease in depressive symptoms in 2 FSW populations. The expansion of HIV testing programs may have mental health benefits for FSWs.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.