WHOQOL-HIV for quality of life assessment among people living with HIV and AIDS: results from the field test.

Assessment of quality of life (QoL) in persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) is becoming crucial to research and evidence-based practice in this area. This paper describes the analysis of the WHOQOL HIV field test instrument, which was given to 1,334 PLWHA from seven culturally diverse centres (Australia, Brazil, Italy, Thailand, Ukraine and two centres in India: Bangalore and New Delhi). The instrument demonstrates good psychometric properties (alpha values for domains between 0.70 and 0.90) and good discriminant validity, with poorest QoL found for those who reported that they were least well. Men reported poorer physical well-being (F=13.1, p<0.001) and level of independence (F=16.1, p<0.001), while women reported poorer environment (F=25.8, p<0.001), social support (F=11.3, p<0.001) and spirituality (F=7.5, p<0.01). Older people (>34 years) demonstrated poorer QoL on physical (F=20.6, p<0.001) and levels of independence (F=18.3, p<0.001), while younger people showed poorer environmental (F=34.6, p<0.001) and spiritual (F=23.5, p<0.001) domains of well-being. The instrument provides a promising means for QoL assessment for HIV/AIDS in diverse cultural settings.