Edinburgh Napier University

  Purpose
To analyze the determinants that influence the health-related quality of life of people living with HIV in Alicante (Spain).

Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted, which recruited 214 Spanish-speaking participants over 18 years of age living with HIV from an outpatient consulting office of the infectious diseases in a hospital in Alicante between 2013 and 2014. A self-administration sociodemographic survey and the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36v2) was used to assess health-related quality of life. This questionnaire measures health on eight domains.

Results
70% of the participants were male, 50% had CD4 cell count between 200-499 cells/mm3 and 20% were infected by the hepatitis C virus (HCV). For the 8SF-36v2 scales, the average scores were higher than 45. Men presented better scores than women; there were statistically significant differences in all the scales except for general health. Being co-infected with HCV and being unemployed or other situations other than having a job were significantly associated with a lower physical component summary, while being married or having a partner were significantly associated with a higher score in the mental component summary.

Conclusion
The socioeconomic level and the presence of clinical factors such as HCV influence the scales of quality of life of physical health among adults living with HIV.