Background: Little is known about the impact of social distancing on health-related quality of life and depressive symptoms in older people with HIV during the COVID-19 pandemic.Setting: HIV-positive and HIV-negative AGE h IV Cohort Study participants.
Method:In September-November 2020, participants completed questionnaires on social distancing, change in substance use, healthrelated quality of life (EQ-6D, including EQ-VAS), and depressive symptoms . Associations between social distancing and (1) EQ-VAS or (2) PHQ-9 score $10 (clinically relevant depressive symptoms) were analyzed using fractional and binomial logistic regression, respectively.Results: Two hundred fourteen HIV-positive and 285 HIV-negative participants were analyzed. 77.4% found social distancing important and 66.9% reported good adherence to these measures, without significant differences between HIV-positive and HIV-negative participants. In both groups, ,5% reported increased smoking or recreational drug use, but more HIV-positive (12.2%) than HIV-negative (4.9%) participants (P = 0.005) reported increased/more frequent alcohol use. Median EQ-VAS was slightly lower in HIV-positive (80 IQR = 73-90) than HIVnegative (84 IQR = 75-90) participants (P = 0.041). The prevalence of clinically relevant depressive symptoms was similar (HIV-positive, 8.4% and HIV-negative, 8.8%). Worrying about contracting COVID-19 and having $3 (vs no) comorbidities were associated with lower EQ-VAS and finding social distancing easy with higher EQ-VAS. Worrying about contracting COVID-19 and younger than 60 years (vs $65) were associated with higher odds of clinically relevant depressive symptoms. HIV status was associated with neither outcome.
Conclusions:Initially during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands, a similar majority of HIV-positive and HIV-negative participants reported adhering to social distancing. Irrespective of HIV status, concerns about contracting COVID-19 negatively affected participants' perceived current health and increased risk of depressive symptoms.