Dimensions of health‐related quality of life in persons living with HIV disease

Abstract

The purpose of this secondary analysis was to test empirically the influence of biological and physiological variables, symptom status, functional status, general health perceptions, characteristics of the individual and characteristics of the environment on overall quality of life in persons living with HIV disease. Path analysis, using multiple linear regression, was used to examine the fit between a health-related quality of life (HRQOL) theoretical model and data from a sample of 142 persons with an AIDS diagnosis. Thirty-two per cent of the variance in overall quality of life was explained by the HRQOL model with symptom status having the greatest influence (beta = -0.237, R2(Y x 2) = 5%). This analysis suggests that symptom status, functional status and general health perceptions are key dimensions of HRQOL. With a focus on prevention, health promotion, symptom management, and the alleviation of acute and chronic illness effects, HRQOL may be appropriate for capturing the outcomes of nursing interventions.

Assessing a conceptual framework of health-related quality of life in a HIV/AIDS population

“…Their results, based on a series of multiple regression models, suggested that HIV/ AIDS symptoms were important intermediate variables between biologic and physiologic variables and physical functional status, as predicted by their conceptual theory. Sousa and colleagues [28] also used a series of multiple linear regression models to assess the Wilson and Cleary proximaldistal conceptual model of HRQOL among patients living with HIV/AIDS. Their findings provided support for the model, suggesting that disease status, functional status, and personal characteristics (e.g., age, sex, and ethnicity) are important concepts in determining overall HRQOL.…”

Understanding the relationships between health outcomes in generalized anxiety disorder clinical trials

“…At the urging of these authors, the Wilson-Cleary HRQL conceptual model has been empirically validated in various health conditions and populations, including coronary artery bypass surgery [36], dental treatment [3], HIV/AIDS [12,13,23,42,46,51,52], heart failure [2,7,25,32,34], Hodgkin's lymphoma [49], Parkinson's disease [10,48]), and in the examination of gender differences in HRQL among the elderly [41]. Wilson and Cleary acknowledged that applying their theoretical model to physical health conditions like rheumatoid arthritis or heart disease would be less problematic than using the model to explain and understand psychological or mental health conditions and stressed the need for added causal relationships between psychological symptom concepts and other variables in their model.…”

Functional Status and Overall Quality of Life in a Multiethnic HIV-Positive Population

“…Limited evidence does suggest that among HIV-positive populations, those with low SES and members of minority populations may have poorer QOL. [8][9][10][11][12][13] Additional efforts are needed to investigate health disparities within HIV/AIDS populations and to understand the factors that are associated with health disparities.…”