Demographic characteristics were obtained by self-report and clinical data were abstracted from participant’s medical records. Clinical
data included HIV disease variables (current HIV viral load, CD4 + T
cell count, current medications, 3-day self-reported HIV medication adherence, and date of HIV diagnosis) and current health conditions. Social belonging was measured with the 6-item Hawthorne Friendship
Scale (Hawthorne, 2006). This scale was developed from the 2004
South Australian Health Omnibus Survey (N = 3015) and was refined
through administration to 829 older adults. We used the refined scale,
which measures perceived social isolation and perceived emotional
loneliness in the past four weeks. Items are scored on a 0–4 scale with
a total scale range of 0 to 24. Higher scores indicate greater social connectedness and lower scores indicate more social isolation. Examples
of items include “It has been easy to relate to others” and “I had someone to share my feelings with”. The Hawthorne Friendship Scale has
good psychometric properties and a Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient of 0.72 in this study.