Body image in patients with HIV/AIDS: assessment of a new psychometric measure and its medical correlates.
HIV infection and its treatment can have significant effects on physical appearance and functioning, which can affect self-perceived body image. We assessed the psychometric properties of a newly developed Body Image Scale (BIS), a subjective measure of body image perception in persons with HIV infection, as well as the scale's relationship to disease progression, symptoms, and demographic factors. HIV-positive men (n = 129) and women (n = 21) attending two outpatient HIV clinics were administered the BIS survey along with a one-page questionnaire. A subset (n = 38) were administered the survey on two occasions to assess test-retest reliability. Nearly half of the sample (46%) had AIDS and 25% had a CD4 count below 200 cells/mm(3) within the prior 3 months. The BIS had unidimensional factor structure, good internal consistency reliability (Chronbach alpha = 0.91), and good test-retest reliability (r = 0.71, p < 0.001) after controlling for the length of interval between assessments. Patients' current perception of their body image was worse then what they perceived it to be prior to HIV infection (p < 0.001), but better than their perception of how others view people with HIV (p < 0.001). The presence of symptomatic disease (p < 0.001) and a diagnosis of AIDS (p = 0.02) were associated with a less favorable body image, although laboratory markers of disease progression (CD4 count and plasma HIV viral load) were not. We conclude that the BIS has good construct validity and is a highly reproducible measure of self-perceptive of body image in HIV-infected patients. Further exploration of its relationship to psychological well being, medication adherence and other aspects of medical care is indicated.
Martinez
Shay M
SM
School of Medicine, University School of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York 95128, USA.
Kemper
Carol A
CA
Diamond
Catherine
C
Wagner
Glenn
G
D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000523:psychology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001828:Body Image; D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count; D018450:Disease Progression; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires