Measuring health status in HIV disease: challenges from a sleep study.
This article reports on the challenges of measuring health status in a study that tested whether there were differences in sleep and well-being between a group of persons with HIV who reduced their caffeine intake from baseline by 90% or greater for 30 days (n = 44) versus a group of persons with HIV who continued their usual caffeine consumption (n = 44). The MOS-HIV Health Survey summary scores were used as health status measures and as covariates. While results indicated that physical and mental health status improved among experimental group subjects, several methodological considerations are offered for further HIV/AIDS researchers: (1) How should health status with various degrees of disease progression be classified? (2) How can health status from different CD4 and HIV viral load measurements be properly inferred? (3) If opting to also employ a health status questionnaire, should general or disease-specific instruments be used?
Dreher
H Michael
HM
School of Nursing and Center for Sleep and Respiratory Neurobiology, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. hd26@drexel.edu
D000328:Adult; D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count; D003069:Coffee / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000276:immunology* / Q000523:psychology; D006304:Health Status; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000209:etiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors
D003069:Coffee