title: Household displacement and health risk behaviors among HIV/AIDS-affected children in rural China.
abstract: When parents die of or are infected with HIV, children might have to leave their own household and be displaced to other living arrangements and some may even be displaced multiple times. The objective of this study is to examine the association between household displacement and health risk behaviors among AIDS orphans (children who have lost one or both of their parents to HIV/AIDS) and vulnerable children (children living with HIV-infected parents) in rural China. The sample consisted of 1015 children (549 AIDS orphans, 466 vulnerable children) in family-based care. The children were assigned to three displacement groups according to the number of household displacement (i.e., none, once, at least twice) after their parents became ill or died of HIV/AIDS. Cigarette smoking, alcohol use, violence, public property destruction, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempt were used to assess the health risk behaviors of these children. Both bivariate and multivariate tests were used to assess the differences in health risk behaviors among displacement groups. The findings indicated that children who were displaced at least twice were more likely to report a higher frequency of public property destruction and suicide ideation than those who were never displaced or displaced once. Multivariate analysis revealed that public property destruction, suicide ideation and suicide attempt were significantly associated with the household displacement among these children, controlling for gender, age, child status (AIDS orphans vs. vulnerable children), and the duration of household displacement. Results in the current study suggest that a stable living environment was important for both AIDS orphans and vulnerable children in communities with a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS. The government, community, and other agencies need to make efforts to avoid frequent household displacement among these children after the HIV-related infection or death of their parents.
authors.affiliation: Carman and Ann Adams Department of Pediatrics, Prevention Research Center, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Qun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Junfeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xiaoyi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Guoxiang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Xiuyun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Liying
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000523:psychology; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology; D054540:Child, Orphaned / Q000523:psychology; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000523:psychology*; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012307:Risk Factors; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012423:Rural Health