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The social roles that women perform can be complicated and may affect their health. While there is some evidence describing traditional social roles of women, there is little evidence exploring the impact of those roles on how a woman manages a chronic condition. The purpose of this paper is to identify and examine the main social roles of 48 HIV infected women, and to explore how these roles relate to their self-management of HIV/AIDS.

Forty-eight HIV infected, adult women were recruited from HIV clinics and AIDS service organizations in Northeast Ohio. All participants participated in one of 12 digitially recorded focus groups. All data were analyzed using qualitative description methodology.

The participants were predominantly middle-aged (mean = 42 years), African American (69%), and single (58%). Analysis revealed six social roles that these women experience and …