Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Jun;21(6):1580-1587.
doi: 10.1007/s10461-016-1589-1.

Psychosocial and Service Use Correlates of Health-Related Quality of Life Among a Vulnerable Population Living with HIV/AIDS

Mary M Mitchell  1 , Trang Q Nguyen  2 , Sarina R Isenberg  3 , Allysha C Maragh-Bass  3 , Jeanne Keruly  4 , Amy R Knowlton  5
Affiliations

Psychosocial and Service Use Correlates of Health-Related Quality of Life Among a Vulnerable Population Living with HIV/AIDS

Mary M Mitchell et al. AIDS Behav. 2017 Jun.

Abstract

Among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV), health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important clinical metric of perceived well-being. Baseline data from the BEACON study (N = 383) were used to examine relationships between HRQOL and negative social support, HIV-related stigma, viral suppression, and physical and mental health service use among a vulnerable population of low-income, urban PLHIV who currently or formerly used substances, and were primarily African American. Factor analyses and structural equation modeling indicated that increases in negative social support, stigma, mental health care visits and HIV physician visits were associated with lower HRQOL, while viral suppression was associated with greater HRQOL. The association between negative social support and HRQOL suggests the importance of intervening at the dyad or network levels to shape the type of social support being provided to PLHIV. HIV-related stigma is another negative social factor that is prevalent in this sample and could be addressed by intervention. Results indicate that greater mental and physical health service use can be used to identify individuals with lower HRQOL. Therefore, findings increase an understanding of HRQOL in this understudied population and have implications for designing interventions to improve HRQOL among PLHIV.

Keywords: African American or Black; Drug use disorder; HIV-related stigma; HIV/AIDS; Health-related quality of life; Negative social support.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Negative social support, HIV-related stigma, health service use, and viral suppression associated with health-related quality of life among former or current drug using persons living with HIV/AIDS. (Beacon Study; N = 383). R2 = .50. Model fit: CFI = .95, TLI = .94, RMSEA = .04, 90% CI = .04, .05. * p < .05,*** p ≤ .001.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Perez IR, Bano JR, Ruz ML, et al. Health-related quality of life of patients with HIV: impact of sociodemographic, clinical and psychosocial factors. Quality of Life Research. 2005;14(5):1301–1310. - PubMed
    1. Wu A, Lamping D. Assessment of quality of life in HIV disease. AIDS-LONDON-CURRENT SCIENCE THEN RAPID SCIENCE PUBLISHERS THEN LIPPINCOTT RAVEN- 1994;8:S349–S349.
    1. Buseh AG, Kelber ST, Stevens PE, Park CG. Relationship of Symptoms, Perceived Health, and Stigma With Quality of Life Among Urban HIV-Infected African American Men. Public Health Nursing. 2008;25(5):409–419. - PubMed
    1. Ware JE, Jr, Kosinski M, Bayliss MS, McHorney CA, Rogers WH, Raczek A. Comparison of methods for the scoring and statistical analysis of SF-36 health profile and summary measures: summary of results from the Medical Outcomes Study. Med Care. 1995:AS264–AS279. - PubMed
    1. Ware JE, Jr, Kosinski M, Keller SD. A 12-Item Short-Form Health Survey: construction of scales and preliminary tests of reliability and validity. Med Care. 1996;34(3):220–233. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources