Abstract:
The main objective of this study was to investigate the relationships between optimism, social support, and hopes among HIV patients. Quantitative and qualitative research methods were applied in this study. The populations in this study were HIV patients who were volunteers of the HIV Netherlands Australia Thailand Research Collaboration (HIV-NAT), the Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Centre. Inclusion criteria were set up to select samples. For quantitative study consisted of 309 samples. A questionnaire was used for data collection. It was comprised of demographic data, illness history, hopes, optimism, and social support. Data were analyzed by using both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics including frequency distribution, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, Pearsons correlation coefficients, and multiple regression analysis. Regarding qualitative study, 5 patients were selected for in-depth interview. The results showed that HIV patients had a high level of hopes, a moderate level of optimism, and a moderate level of social support. Optimism has statistically significant relationship with hopes, but social support has no statistically significant relationship with hopes at α=0.05. Only optimism could account for 26.9% of the variation of hopes. However, even though social support had no statistically significant relationship with hopes and cannot be included in regression equation, it does not mean that it is not a significant variable. The result shows that social support has strong relationship with optimism. It could be said that social support has an impact on hopes of patients by allowing then to feel optimistic about their future.