Quality of life of HIV seropositive women

Cross-sectional study including 40 women selected through non-probabilistic sampling. The questionnaire WHOQOL-HIV bref was the research instrument employed, considering the six domains of the instrument and socio-demographic and clinical aspects. Data analysis was performed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to analyze the normality of sampling average distributions, and the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests to analyze the difference between averages or medians of the scores for quality of life. The Spearman coefficient was used for potential correlations.

Results

According to the questionnaire, the Spirituality domain (average=59.5) reported the highest score, while the Environment domain (average=52.1) scored lowest. The average age was 41 years old; 97.5% declared themselves to be heterosexual; and 80.0% used antiretroviral treatment.

Conclusion

Spirituality was the best-performing domain, followed by the Physical domain. The lowest average scores were observed for the Environment and Social Relations domains.

HIV; HIV infections; Quality of life; Questionnaires; Women

Domains	Number of items	Mean	Maximum	Minimum	Standard Deviation
Physical	4	58.8	80	32	32
Psychological	5	57.6	80	22	22
Degree of independence	4	57.6	80	32	32
Social relations	4	55.9	80	24	24
Environment	8	52.1	68	40	40
Spirituality	4	59.5	80	36	36

Variables	Physical	Psychological	Degree of independence	Social relations	Environment	Spirituality
Age
20 \|- 30	70.00	56.53	54.00	56.67	51.00	66.00
30 \|- 50	56.00	55.93	58.78	53.04	51.91	56.35
> 50	58.55	61.67	57.09	61.45	53.09	62.55
Stable relationship
In a relationship	58.00	57.45	59.27	54.18	52.18	62.36
Not in a relationship	59.78	57.78	55.56	58.00	52.00	56.00
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual	58.56	57.27	57.64	56.00	52.21	59.18
Bisexual	68.00	70.40	56.00	52.00	48.00	72.00
Sexual partner
Yes	60.30	57.13	56.59	56.00	51.48	57.19
No	55.69	58.58	59.69	55.69	53.38	64.31
Years of education
≤ 8	55.20	57.86	56.64	55.20	51.36	59.52
>8	64.80	57.17	59.20	57.07	53.33	59.47
Labor situation
Employed	58.00	59.56	59.33	54.00	52.56	59.78
Unemployed	59.45	56.00	56.18	57.45	51.73	59.27
Income
No income	52.80	55.68	52.00	58.40	46.80	56.80
Less than one minimum wage*	57.50	56.00	54.50	54.50	53.25	52.50
From one to three minimum wages	60.30	58.43	59.56	55.85	52.74	62.07

Variables	Physical	Psychological	Degree of independence	Social relations	Environment	Spirituality
Time of awareness about the HIV diagnosis (year)
1 \|- 5	57.05	54.74	53.89	59.37	50.42	54.95
6 \|- 10	62.00	64.80	64.50	58.00	52.25	63.00
>11	62.18	59.35	61.09	49.45	55.82	65.09
T CD4+ (cells/mm³)
< 200	52.80	56.96	59.20	51.20	47.60	44.00
201 a 350	60.44	59.38	59.56	57.78	53.11	64.00
> 350	59.38	57.11	56.62	56.15	52.62	60.92
Viral load (copies/ml)
Undetectable	62.18	59.05	59.45	56.36	53.91	61.09
Detectable	54.67	55.82	55.33	55.33	49.89	57.56
Infection classification
Asymptomatic	63.56	52.98	59.56	53.78	51.33	61.33
Symptomatic	57.60	52.48	51.20	58.40	51.60	60.80
AIDS	57.33	61.07	58.67	56.67	52.50	58.17
Perception of health status
Bad	44.00	41.60	32.00	46.00	45.00	56.00
Not bad, not good	42.00	48.53	52.67	55.33	53.67	50.67
Good	60.94	57.60	55.53	54.59	49.29	58.12
Very good	65.07	63.36	65.33	58.93	55.60	65.07
Use of antiretroviral therapy (TARV)
Yes	52.80	56.96	59.20	51.20	47.60	44.00
No	60.25	57.60	55.25	60.25	53.25	64.00
Interrupted	59.16	57.77	59.16	53.47	52.32	59.79

Escola Paulista de Enfermagem, Universidade Federal de São Paulo R. Napoleão de Barros, 754, 04024-002 São Paulo - SP/Brasil, Tel./Fax: (55 11) 5576 4430 - São Paulo - SP - Brazil
E-mail: actapaulista@unifesp.br

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[1] Corresponding author. Elucir Gir. Avenida Bandeirantes, 3900, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brasil. CEP: 14040-902. egir@eerp.usp.br