The Role of Religiousness and Spirituality in Health-related Quality of Life of Persons Living with HIV: A Latent Class Analysis

Abstract

Purpose: Understanding how religion and spirituality influence health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is important for developing holistic, patient-centered treatment. This study determined distinct latent classes of religiousness/spirituality for adult persons living with HIV (PLWH) and associations between latent class membership and HRQoL.

Methods: Baseline data was collected from 223 patients in the FAmily CEntered (FACE) Advance Care Planning (ACP) clinical trial for PLWH. Patients completed the Brief Multidimensional Measurement of Religiousness/Spirituality (BMMRS-adapted), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Medical Outcome Study-HIV Survey (MOS-HIV) and the Palliative care Outcome Scale (POS). The optimal number of latent classes was determined by comparing K-Class model with (K-1)-Class model iteratively. The relationship between latent class membership, HRQoL and demographic characteristics was assessed.

Results: Patients were 56.1% male, 86.1% Black/African American, aged 22-77 (Mean=50.83). 75.3% were Christian. LCA identified three classes: traditionally religious (35%), privately religious (47.1%), and spiritual but not religious (17.9%). MOS-HIV mental health (p < 0.001), MOS-HIV quality of life (p = 0.014) and MOS-HIV health transition (p = 0.016) scores were significantly higher among patients who were traditionally religious. These patients were more likely to be 40+ years and Black. Patients in the privately religious group had the lowest levels of mental health and HRQoL.

Conclusions: Understanding how religiousness and spirituality influence HRQoL can help the medical community develop holistic, patient-centered and culturally-sensitive interventions that could improve outcomes for PLWH and potentially mitigate the impact of health disparities within the Black and LGBTQ communities.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS; health-related quality of life; inclusivity; religion; spirituality.

Fig 1.

Patterns of religiousness and spirituality estimated from the 3-class LCA model. Note. The classification of latent classes that Mplus uses for plotting is based on estimated posterior probabilities that is slightly different from that based on the most likely latent class membership.