Prevalence of Depression, Anxiety, and Associated Factors Among PLHIV Registered at Rural Area at the HIV Treatment Centre Nawabshah Sindh Pakistan

Background: Introduction Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) continues to pose a significant public health challenge worldwide. Depressive and anxiety disorders are common in People Living with HIV (PLHIV) and negatively impact adherence, quality of life, and disease outcomes (World Health Organization [WHO], 2025b; UNAIDS, 2024). Social stigma, discrimination, unemployment, and poor family support are common predictors of depression and anxiety among PLHIV (Ali et al., 2024). Objective: To find out how common depression and anxiety are among People Living with HIV (PLHIV) at rural area of country in Sindh at the HIV Treatment Centre in Nawabshah Sindh Pakistan, we looked at data from January 2025 to December 2025. Methodology: We did a study with 254 PLHIV who visited the HIV Treatment Centre in Nawabshah from January to December 2025. We collected information using questionnaires that asked about their background, health, depression, and anxiety. We used a computer program called SPSS to analyze the data. We looked for things that might be connected to depression and anxiety. If the results showed a connection, we considered it important if the p-value was than 0.05. Results: Out of 254 people 109 (42.9%) had depression and 96 (37.8%) had anxiety. We found that depression was more common in people who were unemployed felt like they were being treated unfairly did not have family support had a low income and did not take their HIV medicine as prescribed. Anxiety was more common in women, people who used substances, those who had been sick for a time and people who faced social discrimination. Depression and anxiety are very common among PLHIV at the HIV Treatment Centre, in Nawabshah. We think that checking for health issues and providing support should be a regular part of HIV treatment.