Assessment of the Quality of Life of People Living with Hiv/Aids Receiving Anti-Retroviral Therapy in the New Juaben Municipality

Abstract

Background: The Human Immune-Deficiency Virus (HIV) epidemic is a major public health issue confronting the world today. As a result of the effectiveness of the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) now live longer. Quality of life (QOL) of PLWHA has become a distinct and important patient-reported prognostic measure in HIV care. Objectives: This study was on the assessment of the QOL of PLWHA receiving anti-retroviral therapy; the physical, psychological, environmental characteristics that affected the QOL; the effect of social relationships on QOL as well as the predictors of QOL of PLWHA in the New Juabeng Municipality. Methodology: This study was a cross sectional survey employing simple random sampling technique to recruit 420 participants. This study was conducted in the Eastern Regional Hospital, Koforidua. A standardized WHOQOL-HIV questionnaire was administered to participants to solicit for information on their demographic data and the determinants of QOL. Statistical analysis was done using STATA software (version 13). A correlational analysis was conducted to ascertain the relationship between social relationships and QOL of PLWHA. Furthermore a multiple linear regression was done to identify the predictors of QOL of PLWHA. Significance level was set at p <0.05. Results: The QOL score was poor in all domains. Hence the overall mean QOL score (44.05  18.98) was poor. Factors such as availability of medicines, energy, mobility, sleep and work capacity affected the physical health of PLWHA. Psychological factors such as enjoying life, meaningfulness of life, ability to concentrate, acceptance of bodily appearance and negative feelings affected the QOL. The association between social relationships and QOL was found to be statistically significant (p=0.000). Social relationships also had a positive linear correlation with QOL of PLWHA: personal relations (r = 0.469, p <0.01); sex (r = 0.164, p = 0.001); emotional support (r = 0.308, p = 0.001). As regards environmental domain, financial resources, living environment, transport and access to healthcare were the environmental characteristics that affected the QOL. Overall, only the highest educational level of PLWHA positively predicted the QOL in all domains. Conclusion: The overall QOL of PLWHA receiving ART from the Eastern Regional Hospital, Koforidua was poor (44.05  18.98). Key words: people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA), quality of life (QOL), human immune deficiency syndrome (HIV), acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).