The impact of HIV/AIDS on the quality of life: A cross sectional study in north India

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine the impact of Human Deficiency Virus (HIV)/AcquiredImmunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) on the quality of life (QOL) on such patients in North India. DESIGN: A cross sectional study. SETTING: Outpatient setting and wards, Department of Medicine at a premier tertiary health care center, North India. PARTICIPANTS: Sixty-eight consecutive HIV/AIDS patients attending Medicine out patient department and/or admitted to the wards of All India Institute of Medical Sciences were administered a structured questionnaire by the HIV nurse coordinator. QOL was evaluated using the WHOQOL-Bref (Hindi) instrument. ANALYSIS: One way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was performed to find out significant difference between the clinical categories and socio-demographic variables on QOL domains. RESULTS: The overall QOL mean score on a scale of 0-100 was found to be 25.8. Similarly, on the scale of 0-100 the mean scores in the four domains of QOL in descending order were social (80.9); psychological (27.5); physical (17.7) and environmental domain (11.65). There was a significant difference of quality of life in the physical domain between asymptomatic patients (14.6) and patients with AIDS (10.43) defining illnesses (p<0.001) and asymptomatic and early symptomatic (12) patients (p=0.014). QOL in the psychological domain was significantly poorer in early symptomatic (12.1) (p<0.05) and AIDS patients (12.4) (p<0.006) as compared to asymptomatic individuals (14.2). A significant difference in QOL scores in the psychological domain was observed with respect to the educational status (p<0.037) and income of patients (p<0.048). Significantly better QOL scores in the physical (p<0.040) and environmental domain (p<0.017) were present with respect to the occupation of the patients. Patients with family support had better QOL scores in environmental domain. CONCLUSIONS: In our study, QOL is associated with education, income, occupation, family support and clinical categories of the patients.

Qualidade de vida de portadores de HIV/AIDS e sua relação com linfócitos CD4+, carga viral e tempo de diagnóstico

“…As características sociodemográficas e clínicas da amostra são semelhantes às observadas nos pacientes adultos com HIV/ AIDS no Brasil e em outros países: amostra com maioria masculina, com trabalho e baixa renda, uso da HAART e baixa frequência de doenças concomitantes ao HIV 4,5,[7][8][9][11][12][13][14] . Os escores médios obtidos para os seis domínios foram de 12,6 a 14,8 pontos, classificados como intermediários 6 .…”

“…É preciso pensar na QV como um estado multifatorial 11 ; assim, a contagem de células CD4 e CV podem ser fatores de confusão, mas é consenso que pacientes com baixa contagem de CD4 e elevada CV são mais propensos a sintomas da doença, a infecções oportunistas e a uso de maior número de medicamentos que afetam a QV negativamente 6,7,9,11 . Exemplificando, apesar de a amostra estudada não ter apresentado associação entre a contagem de células CD4 com o domínio físico, é evidente que a queda na contagem de linfócitos CD4+ representa comprometimento do sistema imunológico, facilitando a instalação de uma infecção oportunista e afetando negativamente este domínio.…”

Calidad de vida relacionada con la salud en adultos con VIH/sida, Medellín, Colombia, 2009

“…En otras características clínicas, se han reportado estudios con resultados divergentes al actual, ya que se ha referido que los sujetos con estadios más avanzados de la enfermedad presentan peores puntajes en todas las dimensiones (13)(14)(15)18,28,35,37,38), el tratamiento HAART influye positivamente en las dimensiones del MOSSF36 (37), el tiempo de diagnóstico se relaciona con la salud psicológica (16) y el presentar mayor carga viral se asocia con peores puntajes del MOSSF-36 (14,(30)(31). Estas divergencias pueden sustentarse en que, en el actual estudio, no se incluyeron sujetos con alteraciones importantes en su estado de salud, todos los participantes que requerían tratamiento antrirretroviral tenían acceso a él, y se observaron altos recuentos de linfocitos CD4 y valores bajos en la carga viral.…”

“…En múltiples estudios se ha evaluado la calidad de vida relacionada con la salud de las personas con VIH/sida mediante el MOSSF-36 y el WHOQOL-BREF, y se ha reportado su asociación con diferentes variables sociodemográficas y clínicas; entre éstas, las más relevantes han sido el sexo (13), el nivel educativo (14,15), el ingreso económico (14)(15)(16)(17), el empleo (15), el apoyo familiar (15), el tipo de aseguramiento en salud (13), el tiempo de diagnóstico (16), el estadio de la infección (13)(14)(15) y el recuento de linfocitos CD4 (18).…”

Knowledge and beliefs about HIV/AIDS among physiotherapy students

“…2,3 India is estimated to have the third highest number of estimated people living with HIV/AIDS, after South Africa and Nigeria (UNAIDS Report on the Global AIDS epidemic 2010). 4 A healthcare provider has been at an estimated 0.3% risk of occupational transmission of the virus from a patient, after a single percutaneous exposure to HIV-infected blood.…”