Publication:

Quality of life among people living with HIV/AIDS in tertiary care centre of Himachal Pradesh

Background The world health organization (WHO) has defined quality of life as an individual’s perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns. The objective of study was to assess the quality of life among people living with HIV/AIDS by comparison of mean scores of their quality of life in physical, psychological, social and environmental domain.

Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted among PLWHA on ART during 2016-17. Data were collected using WHOQOLHIV‑BREF scale and mean±SD of score was calculated. The difference in mean scores of various domains were analysed using ANOVA test. All variables with p<0.2 on univariate analysis were included in multivariate linear regression model.

Results The total score of QOL was 61.71±9.43. The scores of QOL was highest in physical and lowest in environmental domains with 69.55±12.27 and 57.14±10.61 respectively. 71.25% patients rated their QOL good and only 10% were dissatisfied with their health. Currently ill status was the most associated factor under all except social domain. Males with higher education or living with their spouse had significantly better QOL scores.

Conclusions Being a male, educated, employed in the government sector, belonging to general caste category and living with their married spouse were the factors for their better QOL in comparison to their counterparts. Along with ART, other factors should be taken into consideration to improve QOL of PLWHA.