The International Journal of Indian Psychology ISSN 2348-5396 (e) | ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) Volume 2, Issue 4, DIP: B03100V2I42015 http://www.ijip.in | July – September, 2015 © 2015 I M Jain, A Agrawal, P Bhatnagar, M Yadav; licensee IJIP. This is an Open Access Research distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any Medium, provided the original work is properly cited. A Qualitative Assessment of Health Perceptions in Patients of HIV at a Tertiary Level HIV Clinic Meha Jain 1 , Anurag Agrawal 2 , Pallavi Bhatnagar 3 , Mamta Yadav 4 ABSTRACT It is clearly understood that people address, understand and cope with their health problems with reference to their perception about health and illness. It is in this light that the present study has been taken up to explore the health perception of patients with HIV. The sample consisted of 60 HIV patients- 30 males and 30 females. A major variable was gender. Self designed open-ended questionnaire consisting of 24 items was used. The responses obtained were content analyzed and percentage analysis was done. The results showed that both males and females had poor health awareness. The coping strategies employed by them showed that both males and females feel anxious when they are sick (55%). Sex stereotype seems to be all pervasive, having effect in the present results as well, with more males reporting rest when sick (26.67%) as compared to their female counterparts (6.67%). Poor base of health awareness serves as a stepping stone for creating a preventive intervention package for increasing their health awareness and more positive outlook towards health instead of disease. Keywords: HIV, Health perception World Health Organization defined health as “a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (World Health Organization, 1948). How one addresses her/his health issues is shaped to a large extent by the health beliefs one carries. Health Belief Model (Hochbaum, 1958) believes that health behaviour depends on two factors: whether the person perceives a personal health threat, and whether the person believes that a particular health practice will be effective in reducing that threat. Chronic illness is a long lasting condition that can be controlled but not cured like diabetes, hypertension etc. People’s reaction and coping to diagnosis of a chronic illness depends on multiple factors like the nature of the illness, the age and resilience of the person as well as 1 Child Psychologist, Department of Pediatrics, I.I.M.S. & R., Lucknow, UP. 2 Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, I.I.M.S. & R., Lucknow, UP. 3 Professor and Head, Department of Psychology, Lucknow University, Lucknow, UP. 4 Clinical Psychologist, Department of Psychiatry, I.I.M.S. & R., Lucknow, UP.