Relationship of Emotional Intelligence and Adherence to Combination Antiretroviral Medications by Individuals Living With HIV Disease

Medications are an intentional and purposeful means to the successful management of many chronic diseases. In the treatment of disease caused by HIV, adherence to medication is of particular concern because any level of nonadherence, often a few missed doses, will lead eventually to the development of drug resistance. Many predictors of poor adherence to HIV medications have been identified as significant factors in adherence. Among these is the emotional aspect. The purpose of this study was to examine emotional intelligence (EI) and adherence to combination antiretroviral therapy in individuals who are infected with HIV. EI is defined as the ability to perceive and express emotions, facilitate emotions, understand and reason with emotion, and manage emotions. EI has been correlated with various aspects of success in life. In this study, EI was measured by the Mayer, Salovey, Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test. Adherence to medications was measured by self-report and defined as less than 10% missed doses of medications. Eighty-two participants were recruited from an urban hospital-based HIV clinic. Pearson’s r was used to analyze the data for significance, and no correlation was reported. This data set was not large enough to prove significance, statistically, of the research question. However, an unexpected result of this study was that the overall EI scores for this particular population were markedly lower than the test norms. Further study would be warranted and recommended to explore EI measurement in people at risk for HIV disease or in those who have the disease to further understand the impact of emotions and EI in this specific population.

Key words:  emotional intelligence , adherence , HIV/AIDS , emotions , antiretrovirals