Quality of Life of People Living with HIV/AIDS: The Roles of Clinical and Demographic Factors

Abstract

The study examined quality of life of people living with HIVAIDS and the roles of clinical and demographic factors. A purposive sample of 210 (59 males and 151 females) PLWHA with age ranged between 18 and 90years participated in the study. A structured questionnaire format was used to gather data and analysed using descriptive and correlation analyses, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Post-hoc analyses. The results revealed that educational qualification and HIV-Serostatus significantly have negative correlation with quality of life. Additionally, physical psychological, level of independence, social relationship, environment and spirituality domains and general health perception significantly have positive correlation with general quality of life. Conversely, age, gender, tested HIV-Positive, consideration of illness, risk factors and CD4 medical outcome have no significant correlation with general quality of life. Specifically, educational qualification negatively related with physical, level of independence, spirituality domains and general quality of life. Similarly, HIV–positive status negatively related with physical and spirituality domains of quality of life. Likewise, HIV-Serostatus significantly have negative relationship with psychological, level of independence and environment domains of quality of life. In addition, risk factors significantly have negative correlation with psychological domain of quality of life. ANOVA showed that participant’s educational qualification and HIV-Serostatus significantly influenced quality of life whereby participants with postgraduate degrees and AIDS significantly difference on quality of life. The study concluded that clinical and demographic factors correlated with quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS and hence should be taking into consideration when assessing PLWHA.