Quality of life among HIV-infected individuals failing first-line antiretroviral therapy in resource-limited settings

ABSTRACT

We evaluated health-related quality of life (QoL) in HIV infection participants with virologic failure (VF) on first-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 9 resource-limited settings (RLS). ACTG SF-21 was completed by 512 participants at A5273 study entry; 8 domains assessed: general health perceptions (GHP), physical functioning (PF), role functioning (RF), social functioning (SF), cognitive functioning (CF), pain (P), mental health (MH), and energy/fatigue (E/F); each was scored between 0 (worst) to 100 (best). Mean QoL scores ranged from 67 (GHP) to 91 (PF, SF, CF). QoL varied by country; high VL and low CD4 were associated with worse QoL in most domains, except RF (VL only), SF (CD4 only) and CF (neither). Number of comorbidities, BMI and history of AIDS were associated with some domains. Relationships between QoL and VL varied among countries for all domains. The association of worse disease status with worse QoL may reflect low QoL when ART was initiated and/or deterioration associated with VF.

KEYWORDS:

• Health-related quality of life
• HIV
• virologic failure
• antiretroviral therapy
• resource-limited settings

Disclosure statement

Disclosure statement not submitted to first authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases [grant number 2UM1AI069423,AI069432,AI069438,AI069481,K24DA040489,K24MH094214,U01AI068636,UM1 AI068634,UM1 AI069471].