Health related quality of life among persons with HIV after the use of protease inhibitors.
OBJECTIVE
This study was conducted to determine the effect of the use of HIV protease inhibitors on the quality of life among persons infected with HIV.


METHODS
Subjects were participants in the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS Drug Treatment Program who had completed two annual participant surveys, one prior to initiating therapy with a protease inhibitor and one after. Quality of life was measured using the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form Health Survey (MOS-SF). Statistical analyses were conducted using parametric and multivariate methods.


RESULTS
Our analysis was based on 179 HIV-positive individuals. Compared to quality of life at baseline, we found no statistically significant changes in the health perception, pain, physical, role and social functioning MOS-SF subscale scores at follow-up. The measure of mental health was the only component to decline significantly over time. Subanalyses found significant increases in the measures of health perception (p = 0.004), physical (p = 0.037), role (p < 0.001) and social functioning (p = 0.053) for individuals with a low baseline quality of life. For those with a higher quality of life before starting a protease inhibitor containing regimen we observed a significant decline in the subscales of mental health (p = 0.001), physical (p = 0.007), role (p = 0.021) and social functioning (p = 0.003) over the study period.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings indicate that despite strict dosage requirements and adverse side effects associated with protease inhibitor use patients are on the whole maintaining their quality of life after starting on a protease inhibitor containing regimen. Continued follow-up of this cohort will be required to determine the long term implications of these observations.
British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
S
S
Low-Beer
K
K
Chan
E
E
Wood
B
B
Yip
J S
JS
Montaner
M V
MV
O'Shaughnessy
R S
RS
Hogg
D000328:Adult; D001955:British Columbia; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy*; D017320:HIV Protease Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011788:Quality of Life; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
D017320:HIV Protease Inhibitors