Physical activity and quality of life in people living with HIV

ABSTRACT

As life expectancy in people living with HIV (PWH) has increased, the focus of management has shifted to preventing and treating chronic illnesses. Regular physical activity (PA) has been shown to reduce the impact of HIV on both physical and mental health. Our objectives were to assess the PA levels of PWH compared to HIV negative controls; investigate factors associated with PA; and determine the effect of PA levels on quality of life and mental well-being. We recruited 110 PWH and 110 HIV negative controls in this cross-sectional, single-centre study. Physical activity, quality of life and mental well-being were assessed using the rapid assessment of physical activity tool, EQ-5D-5L Questionnaire, and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Score. Binary logistic regression and multiple linear regression were used to identify factors associated with PA levels and mental well-being scores respectively. PWH were less likely to meet the WHO-recommended PA requirements compared to controls (50.0% vs. 64.5%; p = 0.041) and had significantly lower mental wellbeing and quality of life scores. Additionally, in PWH higher PA levels were associated with improved self-rated quality of life scores (p = 0.027). Our results suggest that targeted exercise programmes could have a beneficial effect on health status in PWH.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV
• physical activity
• exercise
• mental well-being
• quality of life

Acknowledgements

We thank all participants in the study. KM contributed to study concept and design, collected the data, contributed to the analysis and interpretation of data and drafting of the manuscript. JHV contributed to study concept and design, further interpretation of the data and critical revision of the manuscript. FN and BK contributed to study concept and design and critical revision of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

JHV has received honoraria and research grants, been a consultant or investigator in trials sponsored by Merck, Janssen Cilag, Piramal and Gilead sciences. He has received sponsorship to attend scientific conferences from Janssen Cilag, Gilead Sciences and AbbVie. KM, FN and BK report no disclosures relevant to this work.

ORCID

Kevin Martin http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6561-1353