Examining Mental Health, Social Support and Resilience Among Immigrant Women Living with HIV in the British Columbia CARMA-CHIWOS Collaboration (BCC3) Study.

Authors

S Sahel Mirrazavi, Patience Magagula, Shayda A Swann, Terry Lee, Shelly Tognazzini, Charity V Mudhikwa, Angela Kaida, Elizabeth M King, Hélène C F Côté, Melanie C M Murray, British Columbia CARMA-CHIWOS Collaboration (BCC3; CIHR Canadian HIV Trials Network study 335)

Published in

AIDS and behavior. Jul 02, 2026. Epub Jul 02, 2026.

Abstract

Mental health conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and depressive symptoms, are more prevalent among in women living with HIV and immigrant women as compared with men living with HIV and the general population. However, less is known about the intersection of these identities and their impact on the mental health of immigrant women living with HIV. This cross-sectional analysis of survey data from the British Columbia CARMA-CHIWOS Collaboration (BCC3) Study estimates the prevalence of mental health conditions among immigrant women living with and without HIV and explores potential risk (i.e., experiences of racism, sexism, childhood violence and adulthood violence) and protective (e.g., resilience, social support) factors contributing to mental health. Among n = 62 women living with HIV and n = 79 women without HIV, the prevalence of PTSD (50.0% vs. 37.0%, respectively (X²(1) = 1.994, p = 0.16), anxiety (X²(1) = 1.929, 29.0% vs. 17.7% (p = 0.76)), and depressive symptoms (X²(1) = 0.912, 50.0% vs. 40.5% (p = 0.34)) did not differ significantly. Among all immigrant women (both living with or without HIV), lower resilience scores (aOR (adjusted odds ratio), 0.94 [95% CI, 0.89-0.97], p = 0.004), lower social support (0.73 [0.63-0.83], p < 0.001), higher experiences of sexism (1.08 [1.03-1.14], p < 0.001), racism (1.06 [1.02-1.11], p = 0.002) and childhood abuse (0.94 [0.90-0.98], p = 0.003) were associated with higher odds of having one or more mental health conditions. Policies and interventions aimed at strengthening social networks, promoting resiliency and addressing systemic barriers such as racism and sexism are essential to improving mental health outcomes among immigrant women.

PMID:
42390683
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 02 Jul 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.