Health-related quality of life and virologic outcomes in an HIV clinic

Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship betwe en viral load and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in a cohort of per sons with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Design: We evaluate d HRQOL measurements in a clinical cohort of HIV-positive patients recruite d from a university-associated HIV primary care clinic. HRQOL instruments i ncluded the medical outcomes survey-short form-36(MOS-SF-36) from which men tal and physical component summary scores (MCS and PCS) and subscale scores were calculated. Results: Significant negative associations were found bet ween viral load and SF-36 PCS, physical functioning (PF), role-physical(RP) , bodily pain (BP), general health (GH), role-emotional (RE), and vitality (VT). Similar negative associations were found between CD4 cell count and S F-36 summary and subscale scores, with the notable exception of bodily pain . Multivariate analyses controlling for the effects of CD4 cell count and o ther clinical variables indicated viral load as an independent predictor of SF-36 PCS, RP, BP and VT scores. Conclusions: The relationship between vir al load, a measure of HIV disease activity, and several dimensions of the S F-36, a patient-focused measure of HRQOL, appears to be strong and independ ent of CD4 cell count. These findings suggest that having a lower viral loa d positively impacts the quality of life of HIV-positive patients.