Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

    Background & Aim: During recent years, the quality of life as one of the important outcomes of chronic diseases has been paid attention to by clinical researchers. The aim of this study was to determine the quality of life of the patients with HIV/AIDS referred to the West consulting center of behavioral diseases in Tehran and to draw a comparison with the quality of life of healthy persons. Patients and Method: Using simple sampling method, this cross-sectional study was carried out on 139 patients and 139 healthy subjects in the control group matching the patients for age and sex. The study made use of the summarized quality of life questionnaire of World Health Organization(WHO-Qol-Brief). Demographic and clinical variables associated with the quality of life of HIV/AIDS patients were assessed. Statistical tests like t-test, Chi-square, One-way ANOVA, and Linear regression were used for data analysis. Results: The majority of the patients(88.5%) were male with secondary education. 28.1% were married and the majority of them were unemployed. The average age of the cases was 35.49 years(6.42 SD). A significant difference was seen between the patients and the control group in all aspects of quality of life(P<0.001). The variables such as sex, marital status, education, job, CD4+ cells count, and the clinical stage of the disease had a significant effect on the quality of life of the patients. In multivariable analysis, the most important predictive factor in the quality of life of the patients was the clinical stage of the disease. Conclusion: Providing psychosocial services with continuous and multidisciplinary care models besides medical interferences can promote the health-related aspect of quality of life in patients suffering from HIV/AIDS.