Development of a Spanish HIV/AIDS Symptom Management Guidebook

To provide culturally appropriate HIV/AIDS patient care, it is important to develop symptom management patient education materials for patients with different cultural backgrounds. The purpose of this study was to develop a Spanish version of the Symptom Management Guidebook: Strategies for People Living with HIV/AIDS guidelines and verify its content, perceived feasibility, and usefulness with HIV/AIDS care providers and people living with HIV/AIDS in Puerto Rico.

The Symptom Management Guidebook includes self-care strategies to manage 14 common HIV-related symptoms. The Spanish version was developed by adopting and translating through forward and backward translation methods. Seven HIV/AID Shealth care providers from San Juan, Puerto Rico, were invited to review and revise the contents. Ten people living with HIV/AIDS from a community AIDS clinic in San Juan participated in a focus group to review the guidebook and discussed its usefulness and feasibility for managing their symptoms.

Participants expressed positive responses and considered an educational guidebook as a helpful tool for self-managing their symptoms.

Results suggested that this guidebook may be useful as an intervention strategy for symptom management in HIV/AIDS patients.

Future research can include testing self-managing intervention and its outcomes in culturally diverse HIV/AIDS patients.