Copyright © 2018 Authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7 (2.31) (2018) 238-239 International Journal of Engineering & Technology Website: www.sciencepubco.com/index.php/IJET Research paper Study on loneliness and depression of the institutionalized HIV/AIDS infected persons in Coimbatore Arun Kurian 1* , N. Prathiba 2 , L. Ranjit 3 1 Research Scholar, Department of Social Work, Karpagam Academy of Higher Education, Coimbatore. 2 Associate Professor and Head, Department of Social Work, Karpagam Academy of Higher Education, Coimbatore. 3 Assistant Professor and Head, Department of Social Work, NGM College, Pollachi. Abstract People living with HIV/AIDS are stigmatized which leads to isolation and loneliness. Loneliness may lead to distress and depression. The present study is an attempt to understand the influence of the loneliness on the depression of the HIV/AIDS infected people. A sample of 186 HIV/AIDS infected people were included for the study using a convenient sampling technique. The findings shows that the loneliness had a strong influence on the depression of the HIV/AIDS infected patients. Keywords: HIV/AIDS, loneliness, depression 1. Introduction HIV persists to be a major public health issue around the globe. In 2015, approximate 36.7 million people were living with HIV which includes 1.8 million children (which is – a global HIV prevalence of 0.8%). A huge majority of these people lives in low and middle income countries. In the year 2015, 1.1 million people died due to various illnesses linked with AIDS. According to UNAID, from the beginning of the epidemic, approximately 78 million people were infected with HIV and 35 million people died of AIDS related illnesses. India is the 3 rd largest HIV epidemic around the world. In 2013, people affected with HIV were found to be approximately 0.3%. This number is small when compared to most of the other middle income countries but it is a huge population in India (1.2 billion) this equates to 2.1 million people living with HIV. In the year 2013, an estimated of 130,000 people died of AIDS related illnesses. (UNAID,2014). India’s highly heterogeneous epidemic is largely concentrating only on few states which are industrialized South and West, and North and East. The four high prevalence states of South India (Andhra Pradesh – 500,000, Maharashtra – 420,000, Karnataka – 250,000, Tamil Nadu – 150,000) account for 55% of all HIV infections in the country. (World Bank,2012). The research studies show that HIV stigma can negatively influence interactions with family, friends, sexual partners, co- workers, and health professionals and often results in loss of social support. Some of the HIV-infected persons do not have an adequate support network because they fear for the rejection from family members or friends (Robbins et al., 2003). Risk for suicide may be increased when HIV disclosure to loved ones, is met with rejection rather than support (Kalichman et al., 2000). The current intimate relationship is associated with lower risk for depression in persons with HIV infection (Komiti et al., 2003). It is very important that the strong and stable social support networks are important in ameliorating the effects of HIV- related stigma (Chenard, 2007). Such neglection leads to loneliness and results in depression. Desalegn Asmare Eshetu. Et.al (2015). Their study found that HIV/AIDS patients had high level of depression. It also found that personal characteristics namely age, sex, income, stages of HIV/AIDS, hospitalized period and stigma associated with HIV/AIDS are associated significantly with depression. Thus the present study is focused on the level of loneliness of the HIV/AIDS and its effects on level of depression of the HIV/AIDS patients. Objectives • To study the socio-economic background of the respondents • To assess the level of loneliness and depression among the respondents. • To study the association between socio-economic variables on the loneliness and depression. • To study the relationship between loneliness and depression of the respondents. 2. Methodology The study is descriptive in nature and thus descriptive research design was used for the study. The universe of the present study has been the Institutionalized HIV/AIDS infected people in Coimbatore District. A sample size of 186 HIV/AIDS people is selected using convenient sampling. The researcher uses an interview schedule for collecting the data from the respondents. The interview schedule consists of three sections namely; 1. Socio-economic characteristics 2. Loneliness Scale and 3. Depression Scale. Pre-test and pilot study are carried out. The data are then analyzed using various statistical tools like percentage analysis and Chi-square.