EVIDENCE FOR RELIABILITY, VALIDITY AND USEFULNESS OF THE MEDICAL OUTCOMES STUDY HIV HEALTH SURVEY (MOS-HIV)

The Medical Outcomes Study HIV Health Survey (MOS-HIV) is a brief, com prehensive measure of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) used exte nsively in human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syn drome (HIV/AIDS). The 35-item questionnaire includes ten dimensions (h ealth perceptions, pain, physical, role, social and cognitive function ing, mental health, energy, health distress and quality of life (QoL)) and takes approximately 5 minutes to complete. Subscales are scored o n a 0-100 scale (a higher score indicates better health) and physical and mental health summary scores can be generated. The MOS-HIV has bee n shown to be internally consistent, correlate with concurrent measure s of hearth, discriminate between distinct groups, predict future outc omes and be responsive to changes over time. Limited experience sugges ts acceptable reliability and validity in women, injecting drug users and African-American and lower socioeconomic status patients. The MOS- HIV is available in 14 languages and has been included as a secondary outcome measure in numerous clinical trials for all stages of disease. In several studies it has detected significant differences between tr eatments; in some cases concordant with conventional endpoints and, in others, discordant. The interpretation of scores is facilitated by an explanation in terms meaningful to the intended audience. Research is needed to compare the MOS-HIV to other strategies for HRQoL assessmen t in early HIV disease.