Objective  To explore the prevalence and influencing factors of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection (PLWH) in Wuhan city, and to provide evidences for improving mental health and living quality of PLWH.

  Methods  We conducted a face-to-face questionnaire survey among 535 PLWH visiting Wuhan Municipal Medical Treatment Center between October 2015 and January 2016.

  Results  Among all the PLWH, the prevalence of PTSD was 26.5% and the prevalence rates of PTSD-related symptoms were 56.8% for re-experiencing, 48.2% for avoidance/affective numbness, and 41.9% for high alertness, respectively. The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that significant influencing factors for occurrences of PTSD and its three domain symptoms included mental conflict at the first diagnosis of HIV positive (very strong conflict: odds ratio OR = 10.033, 95% confidence interval 95% CI: 1.246 – 80.787 for PTSD; OR = 7.158, 95% CI: 2.585 – 19.823 for re-experiencing; OR = 5.112 , 95% CI: 1.653 – 15.805 for avoidance/affective numbness; strong conflict: OR = 4.229, 95% CI: 1.526 – 11.723 for re-experiencing and OR = 3.251, 95% CI: 1.044 – 10.126 for avoidance/affective numbness), highly perceived discrimination (OR = 1.055, 95% CI: 1.036 – 1.073 for PTSD; OR = 1.039, 95% CI: 1.024 – 1.053 for re-experiencing; OR = 1.042, 95% CI: 1.028 – 1.057 for avoidance/affective numbness; OR = 1.045, 95% CI: 1.030 – 1.060 for high alertness), and high possession of social capital (OR = 0.920, 95% CI: 0.883 – 0.959 for avoidance/affective numbness and OR = 0.950, 95% CI: 0.913 – 0.988 for high alertness).

  Conclusion  The prevalence of PTSD and the comorbidity of the three major PTSD symptoms are high among PLWH; mental conflict of at first diagnosis of HIV infection, perceived discrimination and social capital are main factors associated with the occurrence of PTSD among the PLWH.