Quality of Life of HIV Infected and AIDS Patients in UbonRatchathani

Abstract

Introduction: this cross-sectional study was aimed to examine the quality of life (QOL) of HIV infected and AIDS patients in outpatient clinic, Sappasitthiprasong hospital, UbonRatchathani during Aug – Oct, 2010.  Material and methods: subjects were 238 patients who were diagnosed with HIV infected or AIDS with or without antiretroviral agents.They were systemically random selected.The data were collected using a brief version of questionnaire for quality of life of HIV infected persons from World Health Organization (WHOQOL-HIV-BREF) which were divided into 6 dimensions (physical, psychological, level of independence, social relationship, environmental, spirituality/ personal beliefs/ religion domain).  Quality of life was then assessed using percentage and mean of QOL score.The relationship between QOL and patients’ characteristics (gender, age, occupation, income etc.), disease status (disease andtreatment duration,CD4, viral load) complications, family support, perception of health status were determined using Mann-Whitney U Test และ Kruskal-Wallis Test. Results:theoverall quality of life of 88.7 percent of subjects was at fair level.  Most of the subjects had fair level of QOL in physical (68.9 percent), psychological (73.1 percent), level of independence (66.0 percent), social relationship (71.4 percent), environmental (82.4 percent) and spiritual domain (58.0 percent).  Moreover, marital status, occupation, income, complication, family care including health status perception were significantly related to QOL score (p<0.05).  Conclusions: these findings suggested that to enhance quality of life of HIV infected and AIDS patients, the outpatient clinics should support both patients and their family in terms of knowledge about disease and self-care, prevention of complications, including social and mental support.