Quality of Life of People Living With HIV: a Pilot Study
Objectives: To report preliminary results of quality of life (QoL) of people living with HIV (PLWHIV) and treated in the Department of infectious diseases of F. Bourguiba Teaching Hospital. Methods: This is a pilot study that involved 32 PLWHIV. QoL assessment was based on the OMS HIV Bref QoL Instrument. Six domains were considered: physical (D1), psychological (D2), level of independance (D3), social relation (D4), environment (D5) and spritual/religious (D6). A score ranged from 0 to 20 was attributed to assess QoL. Results were reported as frequencies and means. The Spearman test was used to correlate QoL scores to independent variables. The level of significance was set at p<.05. Results: Patients’ mean age was 40.33±9.44 with a M/F ratio of 1.99. Most of the participants had either a primary (31.3%) or a secondary (34.4%) school level, and came from a urban area (84.4%). They were either single or divorced (37.5%, respectively). Nearly 60% (59.4%) had a job. Slightly more than 80% (81.3%) had no psychological support. Half of the patients didn’t consider themselves ill (53.1%) and 68.8% reported an acceptable health status. Most of the participants declared they had no symptoms (81.3%). The lowest mean scores were recorded for D2: 12.33±3.12; D4:11.65±4.46 and D5:12.39±2.36. Indeed, the mean scores of the other domains were low, D1: 14.21±3.33, D3: 14.75±3.02 and D6: 14.18±3.48. A significant association was found with D1, D3, D6 quality of life scores and the marital status (p=.030; .010 and .040, respectively). Conclusions: Within the limits of this study, the QoL of PLWHIV is affected. The lowest mean scores were recorded with the psychological, social relations and the environmental domains.
2021 IADR/AADR/CADR General Session (Virtual Experience) 2021 2228 Behavioral, Epidemiologic and Health Services Research
Berrezouga, Latifa
( F. Bourguiba Teaching Hospital
, Monastir
, Tunisia
; University of Monastir
, Monastir
, Monastir
, Tunisia
)