Md. Carretero et al., RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF AN HIV-SPECIFIC HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY-OF-LIFE MEASURE FOR USE WITH INJECTING DRUG-USERS, AIDS, 10(14), 1996, pp. 1699-1705
Objective: To assess the reliability and validity of an HIV-specific q
uality of life (QoL) questionnaire for use with injecting drug users (
IDU). Method: One hundred IDU with HIV infection (27 asymptomatic, 48
symptomatic, 25 with AIDS) completed the HIV adaptation of the Medical
Outcomes Study questionnaire (MOS-HIV). Validity of the scale was ass
essed by comparing the scores on the MOS-HIV with measures of health a
nd psychological status. Measures of health status used included Cente
rs for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stage, CD4 cell count and
number of HIV-related illnesses. Psychological status was assessed usi
ng the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Sociodemographic data an
d information on illegal drug consumption were also collected. Results
: The MOS-HIV showed a good internal reliability on all scales and the
factor structure was comparable with that reported from previous stud
ies. The psychological scales from the MOS-HIV showed good concurrent
validity. For the physical aspects of QoL, however, some scales were p
oor at discriminating between different HIV disease stages. One reason
for this may have been that factors associated with a history of inje
cting drug use had a significant negative impact on QoL, particularly
for asymptomatic patients. It was notable that QoL in asymptomatic inf
ection was found to be substantially lower than has been reported for
gay/bisexual men using the same instruments and was more strongly asso
ciated with factors related to drug use rather than to HIV disease sta
tus. Conclusion: The MOS-HIV is a reliable and valid measure, but in p
atients with a history of injecting drug use some of the scales measur
ing the physical aspects of QoL may be relatively insensitive to chang
es in health.