| BackgroundThe cumulative reported HIV/AIDS cases were 326,163 at the end of 2009, in which the number of AIDS is 107,050 and the number of reported AIDS-related deaths is 54,292. Among the people infected with HIV/AIDS, the percentage of sexual transmission route is 74.7% and injecting drug use is 24.3%. HAART has reduced the number of deaths and lengthened their lives. Sexual intercourse is important parts of human living and HIV/AIDS living environment, as well as sexual partners are the bridge population of AIDS/STIS to the general population.ObjectiveThe objective of the study was to evaluate quality of life and its related factors in people living with HIV/AIDS and their sexual partners.MethodsNon-probability sampling method was used based on information saturation principle, taking into account the objective, funding situation and field characteristics. Face-to-face interview was conducted for subjects between April and Augest 2009 in Langcang county,Yunnan province.ResultsThe WHOQOL-BREF questionnaires were administered to 417 subjects and 417 was received. Of those,412 questionnaires met the standard and the rate of qualified surveys is 98.8%. The mean time of completing the questionnaire is 15 minutes. The total Cronbach's alpha coefficient is 0.88, and 4 domains of quality of life are all over 0.70, psychological domain had the highest Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.75) and except for drug, medical treatment dependence, sexual intercourse, medical service, social security and traffic, other aspects are statistical significance between HIV/AIDS and sexual partners (P<0.01). Pearson correlation coefficient of various aspects and fields are all over 0.5. Except for energy and fatigue, social security, medical access and traffic, other aspects had strong correlation with their own domains, for example, correlation coefficient of factor 14 and factor 15 with DOM3 greater than 0.8Physical, psychological, social, environmental scores of HIV/AIDS were 14.10±1.85,12.67±1.82,13.23±2.08 and 12.10±1.97. Physical, psychological, social, environmental scores of sexual partners were 15.29±1.93,14.61±1.80,13.77±1.77, 13.17±2.17. The scores of all dimensions of HIV/AIDS were lower than the scores of sexual partners of AIDS patients (P<0.05). The scores of 3 domains among HIV/AIDS were lower than their sexual partners except in the pain and discomfort aspect.There is statistical significant between newly reported HIV/AIDS and their sexual partners in physical domain (t=-2.141, P=0.034), psychological domain (t=-4.89, P =0.001), and environmental domain (t=-2.10, P=0.037).Univariate analysis found that 14 variables (P<0.05) were associated with the quality of life, such as age, gender, educational level, occupation, CD4 cell count, infection status, regular sexual partner, the route of transmission, someone at present when implementing HIV notification, drug use, family income per year, Anti-Retroviral Treatment, and main family earner. Multivariate regression model showed that seven factors had positive correlation with quality of life (β>0,P<0.05), such as male, educational level, CD4 cell count, spouses'educational level, income, route of infection and main family earner. Four factors presented negative correlation with quality of life (β<0, P<0.05), such as occupation, whether there is someone at present when implementing HIV notification, history of drug use and age. In addition, we found out that CD4 cell count had positive correlation in physical domain among HIV/AIDS, but with negative correlation in environmental domain.ConclusionsThe WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire illustrated good validity and reliability for evaluating the quality of life of HIV/AIDS and their sexual partners. Subjects infected with HIV would have an influence on HIV/AIDS physically-related aspects, which is consistent with studies in developed country. In this study, the quality of life of HIV/ AIDS is lower than uninfected people and general population, which is the same as other studies. We also found that quality of life of newly confirmed HIV-infected persons was lower than non-infectedHIV/AIDS and their sexual partners had lower quality of life, which was associated with customs, education background, economic development and education. Therefore, growth of local economy and increases of population income and education are important to promote quality of life. In addition, we should pay more attention to strengthening psychological intervention among young patients, women and persons with multiple sexual partners, patients with antiretroviral treatment and injection drug users to improve their quality of life. This cross-sectional study conducted on HIV/AIDS and their sexual partners was objective and reliable; risk factors discovered in this study can provide useful information for HIV/AIDS control and prevention. One of limitations in this study is that some bias may exit in such information related to personal privacy unwilling to expose. Studies need to be further launched to find more sexual partners in this type of study. |
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