The study was a cross-sectional analytic study. The objective of the present study was to investigate the level of quality of life and its associated factors in postpartum mother with HIV infection during the two years after a delivery. This study was conducted to determine the demographic factors, socioeconomic factors, health status factors and access to public healthcare services factors. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 135 postpartum mothers with HIV-seropositive who gave birth during June 2001-May 2003 at Prajomklao hospital, Petchaburi province, and Ratchaburi hospital, Ratchaburi province. The research instrument elicited information regarding demographic characteristic, health information, and information regarding prenatal and postpartum care, and the WHOQOL-BREF-26. The data collection was carried out between June 2003 and March 2004. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were applied to determine the associations between the independent variables and dependent variables in the univariate analysis and multiple logistic regression analysis (Backward LR). The result showed that 51.9% of the postpartum mothers with HIV had high quality of life and 36.3% had moderate quality of life. For each aspect, most had high quality of life in both physical and psychological domain. From Multiple Logistic Regression Analysis, the educational background (elementary education), type of family, childcare responsibility, and number and continuity of prenatal and postpartum care, were all associated with the quality of life of postpartum mothers with HIV infection with the p-value of 0.004, 0.037, 0.044 and 0.013, respectively. These findings led to a conclusion that childcare responsibility, regular and continuous counseling provided by medical staff, enable HIV postpartum mothers to maintain a good level of quality of life. All public healthcare services should disseminate knowledge about childcare and promote mothers to raise their babies by themselves and provide continuous service to individual patients to motivate their selfacceptance and to encourage adaptation to ensure appropriate healthcare behaviors.

M.Sc.Epidemiology มหาวิทยาลัยมหิดล ปี 2549

of, HIV, infection, Quality, life, MOTHER, POSTPARTUM