HIV-seropositive results, health-related quality of life, and social support: a 24-week prospective study in Thailand.

Although the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and social support (SS) after the acknowledgement of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-seropositive results are important issues in HIV acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) counseling, they have not yet been fully studied. The investigators examined the healthy HIV patients's HRQOL and SS in a 24-week prospective study design. The HRQOL and SS of a participant were assessed by using Quality of Life Index (QL-Index) and Social Relationship Scale (SRS), respectively. The QL-Index, SRS quality (SRS-Q), and SRS extent of network (SRS-EN) scores were rated at baseline (week 0), week 12, and week 24. The significant differences of QL-Index, SRS-Q, and SRS-EN scores obtained at three points of time were initially analyzed by using a repeated measure multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). For those significantly different scores, a paired t test was applied to determine the significant difference of a pair of scores. Sixty-nine healthy individuals who had never had HIV tests participated in this study. Of these, 37 were HIV-seropositive. The HRQOL and SS of 37, 30, and 27 HIV-seropositive participants were evaluated at week 0, at week 12, and week 24, respectively. No significant difference was found among QL-Index scores and among SRS-Q scores obtained at those three points of time. However, SRS-EN scores obtained at week 24 were significantly higher than those obtained at week 0 and at week 12. In conclusion, an HIV-seropositive result by itself does not have much impact on a healthy HIV patient's HRQOL and SS. In contrast, his or her SS seems to be widened over time.