Patients’ and specialists’ perspectives on health care quality and on people living with HIV health-related quality of life in Spain: a cross-sectional survey

ABSTRACT

Spain was close to meeting the 90–90–90-treatment target set by UNAIDS. However, data on health care quality regarding people with HIV and their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) after the COVID-19 pandemic onset is scarce. By considering the perspective of people with HIV and HIV specialists, we aimed to determine some aspects of the quality of care in Spain, such as access to health resources or satisfaction with primary and speciality care, and assess people with HIV health-related quality of life. Ex post facto cross-sectional surveys were administered to 502 people with HIV and 101 HIV clinicians. Unmet needs related to healthcare system and healthcare resources access and to antiretroviral treatment administered by hospital pharmacies were detected. There was also room for improvement in the primary care service delivery and in various aspects concerning people’s with HIV HRQoL. About one-fourth of them experienced stigmatisation in the healthcare setting, which was significantly related to HRQoL. Women, heterosexual participants and those with problems accessing the healthcare system scored poorer in the HRQoL scales. Moreover, according to our data, HIV specialists did not seem to be fully aware of patients’ with HIV needs and overestimated their HRQoL.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV
• social stigma
• quality of health care
• health-related quality of life
• health services accessibility

Sustainable Development Goals:

• SDG 3: Good health and well-being

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Pablo Rivas, who provided medical writing support on behalf of Springer Healthcare.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Geolocation information

Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valencia, Spain. 39°28′44.5"N, 0°21′43.3"W

Hospital Marina Baixa. Villajoyosa, Alicante, Spain. 38°31′48.9″N, 0°11′52.2″W

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in “figshare” at doi pending, reference number [reference number pending].

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by Gilead Sciences.