Poverty, disease progression and employment among people living with HIV/AIDS in Australia

A national survey of 925 people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Australia i s used to examine the relationship between disease progression, employment status, poverty and economic hardship. While disease progression has some i mpact on economic hardship, employment status is found to be the strongest determinant of both poverty and economic hardship. The most commonly cited reasons for leaving work were psychosocial (71%), with declining health cit ed by half of respondents. It is therefore argued that psychosocial issues are at least as important as changes in health in causing unemployment and therefore poverty and economic hardship among PLWHA in Australia.