The objective of this descriptive research was to study quality of life in HIV infected orphaned children. The sample was comprised of 52 orphaned children aged between 5 to 9 years old who were diagnosed as HIV infected and cared for by social welfare organizations in one province in the northern part of Thailand. The questionnaire used in this study included a personal data form and quality of life evaluation. Data were collected by interviewing children and their guardians regarding the responsiveness to basic human needs and services for children in 7 dimensions, health evaluation, and life satisfaction. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation were used in the study. The results revealed that most of the children were in phase II of disease (48.1%), and 96.16 % of the HIV infected subjects had good quality of life. Based on this finding, it was demonstrated that this group of children were under direct care of the government and received care provided in collaboration with both the public and private sectors.Thus, they received appropriate care and treatment with sufficient financial support. This study found that most of the care providers who took care of HIV-infected children had satisfaction with their responsibility because of the love and sympathy they had for the children. Furthermore, they wanted to help these children and did not care much about the financial returns they received or the risk of becoming infected themselves. This led to appropriate care both physically and psychologically which these children received. As 92.3 % of the subjects did not know that they were HIV positive and the children who were 5 to 9 years old did not understand the effects of the disease on their well-being, they had no worries. In addition, they were provided with proper care which included closeness, hugging and other physical contact. Therefore, they did not feel that they were neglected which may contribute to their mental well-being. Therefore, they had a moderate or good level of life satisfaction. As a result of this study, it is suggested that HIV-infected children should be provided with appropriate care even though they are in stages 2 and 3 of the disease so that they will have necessary physical, mental, psychological, emotional and social development to maintain their quality of life.

M.N.S. MATERNAL AND CHILD NURSING มหาวิทยาลัยมหิดล ปี 2544

of, children, HIV, Quality, life