Quality of life Assessment in adolescents living with HIV / Aids followed up in a referral Center in Sao Paulo

INTRODUCTION: the development of new antiretroviral therapies increased survival of children/adolescents infected with HIV. Thus, it is relevant to assess the effects of the disease and the impact of treatment on physical, psychological and social aspects.To assess quality of life among adolescents living with HIV/AIDS and its correlation with socio-demographic and clinical data.

METHODS: this was a cross-sectional study nested in a cohort of patients with HIV/AIDS treated at the Infectious Disease Unity of Instituto da Criança (ICr-Sao Paulo) 61 adolescents (age 12-18 years) were assessed. Information on disease history and use of medication were obtained from medical records. Quality of life data were collected by using the QLA assessment questionnaire for the age group 12 to 18 years old. The internal consistency of the questionnaire was verified by means of the α Cronbach's coefficient. Mann Whitney test was employed to compare means of the quality of life domains according to sociodemographic and clinic characteristics. Spearman correlation coefficients were also calculated.

RESULTS: in assessing the quality of life of adolescents median domain scores ranged from 70 to 98.  In the analysis of the correlation between domains, we found that all were correlated with the domain Signs and Symptoms. There were no statistically significant differences when comparing mean scores of the different domains and clinical and treatment characteristics.

CONCLUSIONS: it was found that the group of adolescents studied had good quality of life, evidencing the importance of a multidisciplinary health care, especially for chronic diseases that have a large social stigma.