Relationships of social capital with health status and mental health in people living with HIV: structural equation modeling

Introduction: Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a unique social phenomenon that affects near-ly all dimensions of socio-economic life of patients. The present study presented structural equation modeling to determine relationships of social capital with psycho-social health in people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).Material and methods: This descriptive-analytical study recruited 321 people living with HIV present-ing to the Center for Behavioral Diseases of West Tehran Health Center, Tehran, Iran between 2020 and 2021. Data were collected using social capital questionnaire, general health questionnaire (GHQ), socio-economic status questionnaire, and demographic checklist containing self-rated items on health status, and were analyzed in SPSS version 25 and Lisrel 8.8. Results: According to the results obtained from path analysis, with variables related to health status, duration of HIV in years ((3 = -0.20) most significantly and negatively affected health status in direct path, economic status ((3 = 0.08) positively influenced health status in indirect path, and social capital ((3 = 0.29) most significantly and positively affected health status in both direct and indirect paths. Among variables related to mental health status, mental health problems were most significantly and negatively related with health status ((3 = -0.26) in direct path, and with social capital ((3 = -0.54) in both direct and indirect paths. Duration of HIV in years ((3 = 0.05) was also most significantly and positively related with mental health problems in patients in indirect path.Conclusions: The present findings suggest both direct and indirect relationships of social capital with health status and mental health of the patients. It is therefore recommended that more attention should be paid to this dimension of health, especially among these vulnerable patients.