THE RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF 2 HIV-SPECIFIC HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY-OF-LIFE MEASURES - A PRELIMINARY-ANALYSIS

Objective: To evaluate the reliability and validity of two HIV-specifi c Quality-of-Life (QoL) questionnaires in a UK sample. Method: Subject s were 99 HIV-seropositive gay men (23 were asymptomatic, 41 were asym ptomatic, 35 had AIDS). QoL was measured using two HIV-specific QoL qu estionnaires. Measures: An adaptation of the Medical Outcomes Study qu estionnaire and a self-completion version of the Health-Related Qualit y-of-Life Questions. Affect was measured using the Hospital Anxiety an d Depression (HAD) Scale. Disease measures included Centers for Diseas e Control and Prevention (CDC) stage, and CD4 and CD8 cell count. Resu lts: Both QoL instruments showed good internal reliability on all scal es used. Many of the scales, particularly those related to physical he alth and functional performance, showed significant correlations with CD4 cell count and other measures of disease progression. Measures of physical health showed a deterioration in QoL as disease progressed fr om asymptomatic disease to AIDS. In contrast, most subscales purportin g to measure psychological aspects of QoL did not correlate significan tly with measures of disease progression, nor was there any difference between CDC stages. Subjects' global ratings of QoL were most strongl y correlated with the HAD depression scale, although there were also s ignificant correlations with most other QoL scales. Conclusion: This s tudy provides further evidence for the reliability and validity of two HIV-specific QoL questionnaires in a wider range of disease stages th an hitherto reported and raises issues relevant to the practical use o f QoL scales in HIV disease.