title: Self-reported fatigue and depressive symptoms as main indicators of the quality of life (QOL) of patients living with HIV and Hepatitis C: implications for clinical management and future research.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the impact of self-reported fatigue and depressive symptoms on the quality of life (QOL) of patients co-infected with HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) not receiving anti-HCV therapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used data from a cross-sectional survey conducted among 115 co-infected adults including an assessment of QOL (WHOQOL-HIV bref questionnaire), depressive symptomatology (Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale [CES-D]), and fatigue (Fatigue Impact Scale [FIS]).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eighty-four percent of patients had been infected through injecting drug use (IDU). Half reported a history of depression or other psychiatric co-morbidities, 57% presented depressive symptoms, and 69% reported fatigue. FIS and CES-D scores accounted for 54% and 66% of total variance in psychological QOL and level of independence-related QOL, respectively, in a multivariate analysis adjusted for sociodemographic and clinical characteristics and alcohol or drug use. High FIS scores were independently associated with impaired physical QOL and social relationships, whereas high CES-D scores were independently associated with lower environmental QOL.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Self-reported fatigue and depressive symptoms are the best indicators of co-infected patients' QOL. These two indicators could be more easily used for a better clinical management of co-infected patients and also introduced as patient outcome measures in clinical research.
authors.affiliation: Health and Medical Research National Institute (INSERM) Research Unit 379, Epidemiology and Social Sciences Applied to Medical Innovation, Marseilles, France. marcellin@marseille.inserm.fr
authors.forename: Fabienne
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Marcellin
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Préau
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ravaux
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dellamonica
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Spire
authors.forename: Maria Patrizia
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Carrieri
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology*; D005221:Fatigue / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D013223:Statistics as Topic